Eight authors win 2018 Windham-Campbell prizes

Eight authors from around the world have received 2018 Windham-Campbell prizes.

The recipients in each category are:

Fiction

• Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda/UK)
• John Keene (US)

Nonfiction

• Olivia Laing (UK)
• Sarah Bakewell (UK)

Poetry

• Lorna Goodison (Canada/Jamaica)
• Cathy Park Hong (US)

Drama

• Lucas Hnath (US)
• Suzan-Lori Parks (US)

The Windham-Campbell prizes are global English-language awards that ‘call attention to literary achievement and provide writers with the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns’. Winners receive an unrestricted cash prize of $165,000 (A$210,987).

Writers are nominated confidentially and the prize is judged anonymously. The phone call that prize recipients receive from the program director, Michael Kelleher, is the first time that they learn of their consideration for the prize.

‘The Windham-Campbell Prize is an extraordinary gift. I’ve always struggled to find pockets of time to write—before class, early morning before my daughter wakes up, during weekends,’ said Cathy Park Hong, a recipient in the poetry category. ‘But now, I have the opportunity to write as if I have all the time in the world.’

Awards will be given out from September 12-14 at an international literary festival at Yale, where the prize’s administration is based.

As previously reported by Books + Publishing, Yankunytjatjara / Kokatha woman and poet Ali Cobby Eckermann was one of the prize’s 2017 recipients, and Helen Garner was one of the 2016 recipients.

The Windham-Campbell prizes were established in 2013 with a gift from the late Donald Windham in memory of his partner of 40 years, Sandy M Campbell.

To learn more about the prize and this year’s recipients, visit the website.

Category: International news