Friday, April 12, 2024

Workshop Assistant Professor of Fiction, Jamel Brinkley and alumni Justin Torres and Robyn Schiff are among the 188 artists, scholars, photographers, novelists, essayists, poets, historians, choreographers, environmentalists, and data scientists awarded fellowships this year from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Brinkley and Torres are recognized in the field of fiction and Schiff in the field of Poetry. Also included is artist Lorraine O'Grady, who attended the Writers' Workshop before embarking on her distinguished work in the fine arts.


Now in 99th year, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recognizes & awards monetary prizes to the 2024 class of trail-blazing fellows across 52 fields

(New York, NY–April 11, 2024) — The Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced today their appointment of 188 Guggenheim Fellowships to a distinguished and diverse group of culture-creators working across 52 disciplines. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of almost 3,000 applicants, the Class of 2024 Guggenheim Fellows was tapped on the basis of prior career achievement and exceptional promise. As established in 1925 by founder Senator Simon Guggenheim, each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”

To see the full list of new Fellows, please visit www.gf.org.

“Humanity faces some profound existential challenges,” said Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. “The Guggenheim Fellowship is a life-changing recognition. It’s a celebrated investment into the lives and careers of distinguished artists, scholars, scientists, writers and other cultural visionaries who are meeting these challenges head-on and generating new possibilities and pathways across the broader culture as they do so.”

In all, 52 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 84 academic institutions, 38 US states and the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces are represented in the 2024 class, who range in age from 28 to 89. More than 40 Fellows (roughly 1 out of 4) do not hold a full-time affiliation with a college or university. Many Fellows’ projects directly respond to timely issues such as democracy and politics, identity, disability activism, machine learning, incarceration, climate change and community. Since its founding in 1925, the Foundation has awarded over $400 million in fellowships to more than 19,000 fellows.

Related article: 2 UI faculty receive prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship