Writers win MacArthur "genius" grants

Writers win MacArthur "genius" grants

Sep 23 2016

The MacArthur Foundation have awarded 23 "genius" grants to people who have shown "exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future". Each award is worth $625,000 to be paid out over five years.

Seven writers are among the twenty-three. Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the following list:

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, playwright and author of Appropriate, An Octoroon and Gloria.

Kellie Jones, art historian and curator, whose works include EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art and the forthcoming South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.

Josh Kun, cultural historian, and author of, among other titles, Audiotopia, To Live and Dine in LA: Menus and the Making of the Modern City and Songs in the Key of Los Angeles.

Maggie Nelson, writer, whose works include nonfiction like The Red Parts and The Art of Cruelty and books both on poetry and of poetry.

Claudia Rankine, poet and author of five poetry collections.

Lauren Redniss, artist and writer, whose books include Century Girl, Radioactive and Thunder and Lightning.

Gene Luen Yang, graphic novelist, whose work includes American-Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints and the ongoing series Secret Coders.

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