Search all Winners

Name Sort descending	Genre	Year
Jack Turner	Nonfiction	2007
Genya Turovskaya	Poetry	2020
Mark Turpin	Poetry	1997
Samrat Upadhyay	Fiction	2001
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi	Fiction	2015
A.J. Verdelle	Fiction	1996
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal	Poetry	2019
William T. Vollmann	Fiction	1988
Ocean Vuong	Poetry	2016
D.J. Waldie	Nonfiction	1998
Carvell Wallace	Nonfiction	2026
David Foster Wallace	Fiction	1987
Anthony Walton	Nonfiction	1998
Weike Wang	Fiction	2018
Esmé Weijun Wang	Nonfiction	2018
Anne Washburn	Drama	2015
Teddy Wayne	Fiction	2011
Charles Harper Webb	Poetry	1998
Kerri Webster	Poetry	2011
Joshua Weiner	Poetry	2002
Annie Wenstrup	Poetry	2025
Timberlake Wertenbaker	Drama	1989
Kate Wheeler	Fiction	1994
Simone White	Poetry	2017
Colson Whitehead	Fiction	2000
Marianne Wiggins	Fiction	1989
Amy Wilentz	Nonfiction	1990
Damien Wilkins	Fiction	1992
Claude Wilkinson	Poetry	2000
Phillip B. Williams	Poetry	2017
Greg Williamson	Poetry	1998
August Wilson	Drama	1986
Tracey Scott Wilson	Drama	2004
Milo Wippermann	Poetry	2023
Tobias Wolff	Fiction	1989

Selected winners

Lauren Yee

2019

The Great Leap

WEN CHANG

he was leading students in an obscene chant.

SAUL

what'd he say?

WEN CHANG

"u.s.a. u.s.a."

SAUL

oh come ON, that's every titty bar in america.

WEN CHANG

surrounded by student protestors in white headbands. it was a clear political protest. a declaration of war.

SAUL

war?! are you crazy?

WEN CHANG

less than twenty-four hours on chinese soil and this is what he does. how could you do this to me?

Lara Mimosa Montes

2026

The Time of the Novel

When I put in my notice at the bookstore, the manager—a heavy-set woman in her mid-forties who often spoke in monosyllabic bursts—curtly replied, “We’re sorry to see you go.” Whether my employer regretted her inability to create a work environment that might have fostered my personal growth and tempted me to reconsider my options was beyond the scope of my then-nascent narrative powers, but I did not elaborate, as I did not wish to draw out the details surrounding my sudden departure. Outwardly, I feigned regret, but inside, I rejoiced: I was free, I thought, free to take leave of my post and bid my old, monotonous life among books and bookish people goodbye! A more urgent position awaited me in the form of a transparent eye. I shook the manager’s hand, and before the day was done, I updated my email account preferences so that in one week’s time, any work-related queries would receive the following automated response:

HELLO: I AM CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE. I’M CHASING A DREAM CALLED PROSE.

Sylvia Khoury

2021

Against the Hillside

ANTHONY
I’m sorry, sir.
I don’t think I understand.

MATT
She took her kid and left in the middle of the night.
To go where?
She’s in the middle of the desert.

ANTHONY
Sir, if I may.

MATT
You may.

ANTHONY
Her leaving
What does any of that have to do with us?

MATT
What does that have to do with us?
We did that, Anthony.
We broke that family up.

A moment.

MATT
Do you not understand that?

ANTHONY
It doesn’t matter what I understand, sir.

Claude Wilkinson

2000

Reading the Earth

Poems

A bobwhite sounds through larks

and jays, the wringing-wet shade,

as in the first world, before Adam

understood their sharp iambs,

when the refrain could’ve been

anything’s: plant or animal, or light

so pure it sang. Even now

how absolute, how wondrously

primitive the singularity rings –

shouting its name, its name,

its name… till from elsewhere

an echo swells through April-thick wings

as if addressing some question

on the presence of parallels.

Rinne Groff

2005

The Ruby Sunrise

A Play

LULU: Mr. Marcus, I didn’t even want to waste your time. Pride and Prejudice is not a book that makes for a teleplay.

MARTIN: Philco’s killing us with the class acts.

LULU: There’s more to classy material than rich people in mansions talking in high-class accents. There are stories to tell about the little guy, an American guy, and the contributions they make; or even fail to make. You see a bum on the street, or a woman yelling at her kids after working in a factory all day, but to really understand what causes that behavior… Each of these people had goals; they had dreams; they had disappointments. TV can get inside that, can get close, and be honest about it. That’s what’s classy.

MARTIN: So no more period pieces?

LULU: If they’re topical.

MARTIN: Pride and prejudice: sounds topical.

LULU: It’s about marriage. Today’s audience has more on their mind than who marries who.