10 emerging writers each receive $50,000 Whiting Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Fiction writer Aaliyah Bilal, a National Book Award finalist last fall for her story collection “Temple Folk,” is among 10 winners of the Whiting Award for emerging authors. Bilal and the other recipients, who include fellow fiction writers Yoon Choi, Gothataone Moeng and Ada Zhang, will each be given $50,000.

On Wednesday, the Whiting Foundation announced that Whiting prizes also were awarded to dramatists Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; as well as poets Taylor Johnson, Charif Shanahan and Elisa Gonzalez; and to poet and nonfiction writer Javier Zamora.

“The rigor and fluid beauty of their writing makes us excited for the work to come,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting’s director of Literary Programs, said in a statement about this year’s honorees.

The awards were established in 1985, with previous winners including Tony Kushner, Mary Karr and Jeffrey Eugenides. The Whitings are designed to “identify exceptional new writers who have yet to make their mark in the literary culture.”