NEW YORK CITY: The Whiting Foundation has announced the 10 winners of the 2019 Whiting Awards, which were held on March 20 at the New York Historical Society. The winners spanned both the literary and theatre world. The winners in the drama category were Michael R. Jackson and Lauren Yee. They will each receive $50,000.
Jackson was recognized for his musical A Strange Loop, which will soon receive a production at Playwrights Horizons in New York City, described by the Whiting Foundation as “robustly intelligent, unflinchingly honest, dizzyingly screwball, and a sheer delight.”
Yee was recognized for her play Cambodian Rock Band, which “examines the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in a play that also takes on the dynamics of father/daughter relationships and the joyful legacy of Cambodian pop music.”
The Whiting Awards, established by the Whiting Foundation in 1985, recognize emerging writers, and are based on the criteria of early-career achievement and the promise of superior literary work to come. Eight-million dollars has been awarded to 340 fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, and playwrights to date.
