NEW YORK CITY: American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the winners of the 2017 Arts and Letters Awards in Literature. Among the recipients are playwrights Lynn Nottage, Ayad Akhtar, and Dominique Morisseau. An awards ceremony will be held in New York City in May.
The literature prizes recognize emerging and established writers of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry. Members of the American Academy of Arts nominate candidates, and winners are selected by a rotating committee of writers. This year’s award committee members included John Guare, Thomas McGuane, Anne Tyler, Rosanna Warren, and Joy Williams.
Nottage will receive the Award of Merit Medal for her play Sweat. The award comes with a cash prize of $25,000. Akhtar and Morisseau are among eight recipients of the Arts and Letters Award for Literature, which “honors exceptional accomplishment in any genre” with a prize of $10,000.
Work by the winners will be featured in the 2017 Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards, which will be on view in the Academy’s galleries on Audubon Terrace in New York City from May 18 to June 11.
