Introducing the Winners of the 2021 Whiting Awards

For the seventh consecutive year, in 2021 The Paris Review Dailyis pleased to announce the winners of the Whiting Awards. As in previous years, we’re also delighted to share excerpts of work by each of the winners. Here’s the list of the 2021 honorees:

• Joshua Bennett, poetry and nonfiction
• Jordan E. Cooper, drama
• Steven Dunn, fiction
• Tope Folarin, fiction
• Donnetta Lavinia Grays, drama
• Marwa Helal, poetry
• Sarah Stewart Johnson, nonfiction
• Sylvia Khoury, drama
• Ladan Osman, poetry
• Xandria Phillips, poetry

Since 1985, the Whiting Foundation has supported creative writing through the Whiting Awards, which are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come. Previous recipients include Lydia Davis, Deborah Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eugenides, Tony Kushner, Sigrid Nunez, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Mona Simpson, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Colson Whitehead. Explore all the winners here.

Congratulations to this year’s honorees. And for more great writing from Whiting Award recipients, check out our collections of work from the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 winners.