New York Times: Ward and Haslett Receive $200,000

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced that writer Adam Haslett '92 will receive the Academy's prestigious Strauss Living award of $200,000.

The author of two novels and a short story collection, Haslett was selected by a committee of members of the Academy comprised of authors Ann Beattie, Don DeLillo, Allan Gurganus, and Joy Williams. On behalf of her fellow jurors, Williams says, "Haslett's presciently political and freshly emotional acumen in his stories and novels is impressive."

Awarded for literary excellence, the Strauss Living provides for a $100,000 annual distribution to each award recipient for a period of two years. The intent is to provide the writers the freedom to devote time exclusively to writing. During the award period, Haslett must forego paid employment.

"I'm deeply grateful to have received this remarkable award from the American Academy, and particularly honored to have been given it by a committee of four writers who I could not admire more," says Haslett. "Their vote of confidence and the Academy's support is a great boon to my work and life as a writer."

Haslett graduated from Swarthmore with a B.A. in English literature. He has additional degrees from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Yale Law School and is the author of the short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here and the novels Union Atlantic and Imagine Me Gone. His short stories have been included in the O'Henry Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories. In addition, his honors include the Berlin Prize, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Union Atlantic, and Rockefeller Foundation and Guggenheim fellowships. You Are Not a Stranger Here was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist.