Tiphanie Yanique, originally from the Virgin Islands, is among six emerging women writers who have been singled out for excellence by the Rona Jaffe Foundation to receive its 16th annual Writers’ Awards of $25,000 each.
The foundation will hold a private ceremony on Sept. 23 in New York City. The six winners are Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, Rachel Aviv, Sara Elizabeth Johnson, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Laura Newbern and Yanique. The program is the only national literary awards program of its kind and was created by popular novelist Rona Jaffe to identify and support women writers of unusual talent and promise in the early stages of their writing careers.
The awards are given to writers of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Since the program began in 1995, the foundation has awarded more than $1 million. Past recipients such as Eula Biss, Judy Budnitz, Lan Samantha Chang, Kathleen Graber, Aryn Kyle, ZZ Packer, Julia Slavin, Tracy K. Smith, Mary Szybist and Julia Whitty have since received wider critical recognition. In addition, several Rona Jaffe winners have had recent literary debuts: Elif Batuman, Carin Clevidence, Robin Ekiss, Rivka Galchen, Holly Goddard Jones, Lori Ostlund and Melissa Range.
Tiphanie Yanique’s award is for fiction. Her first book, “How to Escape from a Leper Colony: Novella and Stories,” was published by Graywolf Press in 2010. She received her B.A. from Tufts University and her M.F.A. from the University of Houston. Originally from St. Thomas, her work is focused on the Caribbean and has received the Boston Review Prize in Fiction, a Pushcart Prize, and a Fulbright in Creative Writing. Her fiction has also appeared in Callaloo, Transition Magazine, American Short Fiction and London Magazine.
Her nominater described her novel in progress, tentatively titled “The Novel of Love,” as “an extremely talented and compelling piece of work, filled with many voices and evoking the mystery of the Caribbean.”
Yanique said, “I wonder what a serious, modern literary romance might reveal about the particular black experience of love in the New World.” Her Writer’s Award will allow her to pay for elder and child care next year so she can focus more on her writing. Yanique lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is assistant professor of creative writing and Caribbean literature at Drew University in New Jersey.
The Writers’ Awards ceremony will provide the foundation with an ideal opportunity to introduce its honorees to friends and colleagues in the publishing industry. Some recipients have been introduced to their future agents and editors through the awards. Beth McCabe, director of the program, said, “Now celebrating our 16th year, we are seeing the impact of Rona’s vision and generosity. Most of our award winners are working to complete their first books, and for many this will be the first opportunity in their careers to focus on their writing for an extended period. We have been able to encourage over 100 women to pursue their literary ambitions by offering encouragement and financial support at a critical time.”
The Writers’ Awards program tries to address the difficulties that some of the most talented among them have in finding time to write and in gaining recognition. The awards are given to those who are in the early stages of their writing careers and whose published or unpublished work reveals accomplishment and demonstrates a commitment to writing.
