, an acclaimed poet and assistant professor of English at ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ University, was named one of 10 recipients of the 2008 Whiting Writer’s Awards given for “writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career.”
Hilles, author of the award-winning poetry collection , will receive a $50,000 prize from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, based in New York. The awards were announced on Oct. 29.
“It means a great deal to me – more than I can adequately say – and I hope that this sense of gratitude and encouragement will stay with me for a long, long time,” Hilles said.
Hilles teaches poetry as part of the ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ English Department’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing.
“Rick’s poetry moves and inspires readers, and he does the same in the classroom,” said , William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and chair of the department. “There hasn’t been a better time for creative writing at ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ since the days of the Fugitive poets.”
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation has awarded more than $6 million to 240 writers since its inception and given early recognition to artists including Denis Johnson, David Foster Wallace and Sarah Ruhl. The awards were announced at a ceremony at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
Winners in addition to Hilles were Mischa Berlinski, fiction; Donovan Hohn, nonfiction; Douglas Kearney, poetry; Laley Khadivi, fiction; Manuel Muñoz, fiction; Dael Orlandersmith, plays; Benjamin Percy, fiction; John Sheehan, poetry; and Lysley Tenorio, fiction.
Whiting Writers’ Awards candidates are proposed by about a hundred anonymous nominators from across the country whose experience and vocations give them knowledge about individuals of extraordinary talent. Winners are chosen by a small anonymous selection committee of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors, appointed annually by the foundation.
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation was established in 1963 by Flora E. Whiting with a $10 million bequest. To learn more about the Whiting Foundation, got to .
Media Contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu