English Professors, Lannan Leadership Named Finalists for Neustadt Prize
Left to right: Carolyn Forch茅 and Aminatta Forna have been named finalists for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Photos courtesy of the authors.
June 9, 2015鈥擳wo members of the have been for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature: Carolyn Forch茅, director of Georgetown鈥檚 , and incoming Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics Aminatta Forna. Based in the President鈥檚 Office, the Lannan Center is a literary, critical, and pedagogical undertaking devoted to the situation of poetry and poetics in the contemporary world.
Known as 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Nobel鈥� for literature, the is the most prestigious international literary award given in the United States. Awarded biennially, the $50,000 award recognizes all writing genres, and any living author in the world is eligible for nomination. It is one of the only international prizes to offer equal eligibility to poets, novelists, and playwrights.
Seven of this year鈥檚 nine finalists are women鈥攖he first time that female authors make up the majority of finalists in the award鈥檚 history. The nominees represent China, England, the United States, Scotland/Sierra Leone, Canada, Mexico, Scotland, and Croatia/The Netherlands.
鈥淭o be nominated for the Neustadt Prize is a great honor, one that carries with it the grace of so many respected writers who have been previously nominated. I am delighted and humbled to find myself in such company,鈥� said Forna.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, is the author of five books of poetry and has received the Yale Younger Poets Award, Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and Robert Creeley Award. She also has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2004, she was named a trustee of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, Canada鈥檚 premier award for poetry. Her fellowships have included the National Endowment for the Arts, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship.
was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Britain, and currently lives in London. She is the award-winning author of the novels The Hired Man, The Memory of Love, and Ancestor Stones. In 2014, she received Yale University鈥檚 Donald Windham鈥揝andy M. Campbell Literature Prize. In addition to her novels, she has published short stories and was a finalist for the 2010 BBC National Short Story Award. Forna is a professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University; she will join Georgetown in fall 2015 as the Lannan Foundation Chair, a visiting position at the university.
A jury of writers will select the 2016 Neustadt laureate in October聽during an annual festival at the University of Oklahoma鈥攈ome of the award-winning international literature and culture magazine, World Literature Today.