Christopher Merrill has been named the 15th recipient of the Paul Engle Prize, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization.

Award-winning author and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Tony Tulathimutte is the inaugural recipient of the Jack Galef Literary Arts Award. Tulathimutte is a visiting faculty member in residence at the workshop this fall.

Yiyun Li (MFA '05) and Daniel Kraus take top honors; two other UI graduates were named finalists, including Scott Anderson (MFA 1993)

Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Hajar Hussaini one of ten recipients of the 2026 Whiting Award, prestigious literary award for emerging writers

Guggenheim Fellows this year include three Workshop alumni: Suji Kwock Kim in Poetry, and Lucy Ives and Bret Anthony Johnston in Fiction.

The prestigious prize is the largest annual cash award for English-language literary criticism and will be awarded to poet and Professor of Poetry at Queen Mary University of London, Andrea Brady.