The MacArthur Foundation announced its latest class of MacArthur Fellows, with writers Ada Limón, Imani Perry, and Manuel Muñoz among those receiving the $800,000 awards given to “people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.”
Limón, the U.S. Poet Laureate and author of collections including The Carrying and The Hurting Kind, was named a fellow and cited for “counterbalancing grief with wonder in works that heighten our awareness of the natural world and our connections to one another.”
Nonfiction author Perry (Looking for Lorraine, South to America) was lauded for “giving fresh context to history and the cultural expressions forged by Black Americans in the face of injustice.”
Short story writer and novelist Muñoz, whose books include The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue and The Consequences, was awarded a fellowship and praised for “depicting with empathy and nuance the Mexican American communities of California’s Central Valley.”
The MacArthur Fellowships, often called “genius grants,” were first awarded in 1981. Recent authors to have won have included Kelly Link, Valeria Luiselli, N.K. Jemisin, Jacqueline Woodson, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kiese Laymon.
Limón shared the news of her selection on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, “The poetry community has been my saving grace for over 20 years now and I know none of us make our art alone. Thank you to my friends, family, mentors, and the poets, the big-hearted, cantankerous, generous, against-all-odds-of-it poets. Thank you.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
