February 2011--At its 2011 Annual Conference and Bookfair, the Assoication of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) honored House of Widows author Askold Melnyczuk as this year’s recipient of the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature. The conference was held in Washington, DC, February 2-4, 2011. 9,400 people attended, making it one of North America's largest literary gatherings.

An association of 500 creative writing programs in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, AWP is a nonprofit arts and educational organization. It was founded in 1967 to represent the growing ranks of poets and writers in academe.

A much beloved teacher of writing and literature, Melnyczuk currently teaches in the Department of English at UMass Boston and in the Writing Seminars of Bennington College. He is the founding editor of Agni Magazine, which he established in 1972, and his is the founding publisher of Arrowsmith Press, which he established in 2005. He is the author of three novels and a novella, The House of Widows (2008), The Ambassador of the Dead (2001), What Is Told (1994), and Blind Angel (2004). He has also served as the translator or editor for many other works. He has served as chair of PEN New England’s Freedom to Write Committee. He has taught in prisons, and he helped to establish writing project for “at-risk” youth.

In conferring the award, AWP Executive Director David Fenza said, “He has taught many, he has published many, and he has made our literary circles more thoughtful, more fruitful, and more generous. It’s the default position of writers and artists today to be rebels and iconoclasts—to disparage, dissent, disregard, dismantle, and disrespect; and these tactics have their utility. But William Butler Yeats said, ‘Talent perceives differences; genius, unity.’ Within the strife of our literary politics (and our national politics), we need leaders who seek affinities. We need those who aspire to that spirit of bridging and building. We need to those who lead with whom and what they love. Askold Melnyczuk is one of those leaders.”

The award is named after a founding member of AWP, George Garrett, who made exceptional contributions to his fellow writers as a teacher, mentor, editor, friend, board member, and good spirit. George Garrett served for many years as the editor of Intro, an annual anthology of work by emerging writers; he served on the AWP Board of Directors; he taught creative writing and literature for more than forty years; and he published more than thirty books. As a writer, teacher, mentor, editor, and inspiration, George Garrett helped many young writers who are now major contributors to contemporary letters. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium from AWP in addition to travel, accommodations, and registration for attending the AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair.