Hearken to this textTen rising writers, from an creator of speculative fiction to a poet rooted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, have obtained $50,000 grants from the Whiting Basis.
Since 1985, the inspiration has had a mission to nurture “new creations” by supporting poets, playwrights and authors of fiction and nonfiction. Previous winners have included Tony Kushner, André Aciman and Tracy Ok. Smith.
This week, the inspiration introduced its class of 2025. Elwin Cofman writes speculative fiction that Whiting judges say affords “illuminating websites of bawdy humor and horror,” whereas Karisma Worth crafts post-Katrina poems which might be “songs, howls, portraits, critiques.” Judges praised the essays of Aisha Sabatini Sloan for his or her “startling connections between the private and the collective.”
The opposite winners had been dramatist Liza Birkenmeier, fiction writers Samuel Kọ́láwọlé, Shubha Sunder and Claire Luchette, graphic fiction author Emil Ferris, poet Annie Wenstrup and nonfiction author Sofi Thanhauser.
“These writers reveal astounding vary; every has invented the instruments they wanted to carve out their narratives and worlds,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of literary applications, stated in an announcement. “Taken as an entire, their work exhibits a sharply honed sensitivity to our historical past, each particular person and collective, and a passionate curiosity as to the place a deeper understanding of that historical past can take us.”
