October 28, 2005—Graywolf Press is delighted to announce that poets Thomas Sayers Ellis and Tracy K. Smith are recipients of the 2005 Whiting Writers Award for emerging writers. The awards, which are $40,000 each, totaling $400,000, have been given annually since 1985 to emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.
Since its inception in 1985, the program has awarded more than $5 million to 210 poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, and playwrights. Among the past recipients who have later achieved prominence in their field are Jonathan Franzen, William T. Vollman, Mary Karr, Colson Whitehead, Tony Kushner, Jeffrey Eugenides, August Wilson, Jorie Graham, Cristina Garcia, and Suzan-Lori Parks.

Graywolf Press publisher and director, Fiona McCrae says, “The Whiting Awards give important literary writers who are early in their careers significant recognition. I'm delighted for both Thomas and Tracy, who are both very deserving. These awards will allow them to produce exciting new work, which will be good for all of us.”

The 2005 recipients were announced at a ceremony at Peterson Hall in New York on Thursday, October 27. Dr. Robert L. Belknap, President of the Foundation, and trustee Peter Pennoyer presented the ten writers with their awards. Other writers recognized at the ceremony include Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Nell Freudenberger, Rinne Groff, Ilya Kaminisky, Seth Kantner, John Keene, Dana Levini, and Spencer Reece.

“The Whiting Awards again celebrate an exceptional group of writers who, this year, come from all over the country, from Florida to Alaska,” says Barbara K. Bristol, Director of the Writers’ Program. “All of them have published a first book, and the smaller, independent presses are well represented. This year, too, there is a particularly strong showing for poetry. We are grateful to our selectors for ferreting out some of the most exciting and gifted writers who are now beginning to publish their work.”

Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of THE MAVERICK ROOM, published by Graywolf Press in 2005. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and in Take Three: 1. He currently teaches at Case Western Reserve University and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Tracy K. Smith is the author of THE BODY’S QUESTION, published by Graywolf Press in 2003. She received degrees from Harvard and Columbia universities and a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. She has been awarded a grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and a residency at Fundación Valparaiso. She currently lives and teaches in Brooklyn, New York.

The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation was established in 1963 by Flora E. Whiting. In 1972, her unrestricted bequest of over $10 million enabled the Foundation to establish the Whiting Fellowships in the Humanities for doctoral candidates in their dissertation year. In the years since, the Foundation has annually awarded grants to Bryn Mawr, University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale to fund these Fellowships, the recipients of which are selected by each institution. The Foundation created the Whiting Writers’ Awards in 1985 under the direction of Gerald Freund, who organized and led the program until his death in 1997.

Graywolf Press is an independent, not-for-profit publisher dedicated to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture. The Press has published significant books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translations for over thirty years, and has become one of the leading literary publishers in the country. Graywolf was founded in 1974 in Port Townsend, Washington, as a publisher of poetry, and moved to its current location in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1985, and expanded its lists to include fiction, nonfiction, and translation. Poetry has always remained at the heart of the Press. For more information, please visit our web site: www.graywolfpress.org.