Three Yaddo Writers Win Whiting Awards

New York, NY (October 24, 2007) - Three Yaddo artists – poet Cate Marvin and fiction writers Brad Kessler and Dalia Sofer – are among the 10 recipients of the 2007 Whiting Writers’ Awards, presented Wednesday by the Giles Whiting Foundation to "emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise." The awards, which now include a $50,000 cash prize, were announced at a ceremony at The Morgan Library and Museum.

Brad Kessler

Mr. Kessler’s latest novel, Birds In Fall, examines the aftermath of a plane crash off the coast of Nova Scotia. Winner of this year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize, it was named by The Los Angeles Times as one of the top 10 books of fiction and poetry in 2006. Mr. Kessler also is the author of the novel Lick Creek and several children’s books, including The Woodcutter’s Christmas. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The Kenyon Review, and The New York Times Magazine. A recipient of an NEA grant and the Lange-Taylor Prize from Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, he has taught at the New School University and Antioch University. He lives in Vermont. The Goat Diaries, his first non-fiction book, is due in 2009 and explores the history of pastoralism and his own experience raising dairy goats. (Photo of Brad Kessler by Dona Ann McAdams).

Cate Marvin

Fragment of the Head of a Queen, Ms. Marvin's new book of poems, was published in August. Her first book, 2001’s World's Tallest Disaster, won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Fence, The Paris Review, Slate, and TriQuarterly. She is co-editor with fellow Yaddo poet Michael Dumanis of the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. Ms. Marvin teaches poetry writing in Lesley University's Low-Residency MFA Program and is an associate professor in creative writing at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. She lives on Staten Island.

Dalia Sofer

Ms. Sofer was born in Iran and fled to the United States with her family at the age of 10. In March, she was the first recipient of the Sirenland Fellowship, given each year to an unpublished author to attend the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She is the author of the recently released novel The Septembers of Shiraz and has been a contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered, Poets & Writers magazine, the National Poetry Almanac of the Academy of American Poets, and The New York Sun. Essays by Ms. Sofer are included in the anthologies Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism and France, a Love Story. She lives in New York City.

Now in its 23rd year, the Whiting Writers’ Awards program has honored 230 poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, and playwrights with grants totaling more than $5 million. In addition to the three Yaddo writers, the 2007 Whiting Writers’ Awards winners are Sheila Callaghan, Ben Fountain, Paul Guest, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Carlo Rottella, Peter Trachtenberg, and Jack Turner.