Workshop alumni Joyelle McSweeney, Jay Hopler, Eduardo C. Corral, and Jerald Walker are among 180 artists, writers, scholars and scientists awarded fellowships this year from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. McSweeney, Hopler and Corral are recognized in the field of poetry; and Walker in the field of General Nonfiction.

Appointed based on prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 2,500 applicants in the Foundation’s ninety-seventh competition. In all, 51 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 81 different academic institutions, 31 states and the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces are represented in this year’s class of Fellows, who range in age from 33 to 75. Close to 60 Fellows have no full-time college or university affiliation. Many Fellows’ projects directly respond to issues like climate change, pandemics, Russia, feminism, identity, and racism.