Whiting Foundation

“The Songs Prove That We Were Here”: Ocean Vuong on Sufjan Stevens When Carrie & Lowell was first released in 2015, I was still in grad school at NYU, trying to finish what would become my first book of poems, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. I remember listening t…

Ocean Vuong remembers listening to Sufjan Stevens’s Carrie & Lowell for the first time: “The songs prove that we were here. They are made of air—and yet we walk on them.”

"That is the great miracle of this work. Words weigh nothing, and yet they make everything occur."

We are so thankful to Ocean Vuong, who gave the keynote speech at the 2025 Whiting Awards in April. Read his full speech via @literaryhub.bsky.social: lithub.com/ocean-vuong-...

What a lineup! Join us next week to celebrate previous Whiting Literary Magazine Prize Winner The Common's 15th Anniversary!

Congratulations to Ocean Vuong (Whiting Award 2016), whose new novel THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS is out today from @penguinpress.bsky.social!

Buy the book, and read more work by Vuong on our website: www.whiting.org/new-books

Annie Wenstrup, author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories, has just won the #WhitingAward!

Learn more about this amazing achievement from
@whitingfoundation.bsky.social: www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

#AnnieWenstrup #IndigenousAlaska #Poetry #Booksky

Congratulations to @shubhasunder.bsky.social, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Claire Luchette, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to @samuelkolawole.bsky.social, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Emil Ferris, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction!
www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Elwin Cotman, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Liza Birkenmeier, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Drama! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Sofi Thanhauser, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Nonfiction!
www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to Aisha Sabatini Sloan, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Nonfiction!
www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to @akwenstrup.bsky.social, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Poetry! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

Congratulations to @karismaprice.bsky.social, winner of a 2025 Whiting Award for Poetry! www.whiting.org/awards/winne...

We can't wait to share the names of the 2025 Whiting Award winners! Keep an eye out for the announcement of this year's recipients at 7pm on Wednesday, April 9.

Screenshots from The whiting Foundation created nonfiction grant guidelines

Screenshots from The whiting Foundation created nonfiction grant guidelines

Working on a "deeply researched and imaginatively composed" manuscript about the South and considering applying to the Whiting Creative Nonfiction grant? Let me know. We have one spot left in 2026 for the right literary nonfiction project and bc we're small/nimble, can get the contract done in time.

To celebrate this month's Blood Moon, between March 13 and March 24th, the first 50 people to become a Sustaining Partner will each unlock a $150 gift to Orion from the @whitingfoundation.bsky.social Help support Orion—just a few more days to sign up!
orionmagazine.org/help-sustain...

On 3/6, join the Whiting Foundation at our 2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant info session! Learn more about the grant (deadline 4/23) and ask our staff your questions. Find the registration link and more info about the application here: www.whiting.org/writers/crea...

On 2/19, join the Whiting Foundation at our 2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant info session! Learn more about the grant (deadline 4/23) and ask our staff your questions. Find the registration link and more info about the application here: whiting.org/writers/crea...

Writers and translators: submissions to the Armory Square Prize are now open! Don't forget to submit (and to check out past Armory Square winners and finalists on WWB, of course).

A Human Among Humans | Lucy Sante I first became aware of Larry Fink, who died in 2023, sometime in the 1980s when I bought an oversize postcard of one of his pictures. It showed one of

The photographer Larry Fink “was patient enough to blend into the wallpaper as needed,” writes Lucy Sante, “but he resisted the presumption of invisibility and omniscience.”

On 2/19, join authors @tananarivedue.bsky.social, Victor LaValle, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, along with Black Fantastic editor @andrecarrington.bsky.social, for an online conversation about the new wave of science fiction and fantasy by Black writers. RSVP here: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-...

In a dark time I keep reaching my hands out to beauty and meaning, afraid I’ll lose it. Every room I walk into with my books right now feels holy and crucial. Here we are, saving each other and saving the world entire in the face of burning, melting, wholesale theft. Come out.

Applications for the 2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant are now open! Writers with books under contract in Canada, the UK, and the US are eligible to apply. Up to ten winners will receive $40,000 each.

Find out more here: whiting.org/writers/crea...

Apply to a 2026 Ragdale Residency by Thursday, May 1, 2025! Applications are encouraged from individuals at all stages of their careers working in a variety of creative disciplines, and you can find more details to apply here: www.ragdale.org/residencies

We encourage artists from all backgrounds and countries to apply in the following seven disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts.

Headshot of me (wearing brown glasses, a plaid sports coat in mauve and light blue, white shirt, and a navy blue tie) to the right of the announcement

Some news. Thanks to @shelf-awareness.com for sharing this. ❤️

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these fires. We are hoping for our collective safety and looking forward to a communal recovery. You can find an ongoing list of mutual aid resources here: tiny.cc/malan-fire

Weekly Writes Volume 9 is here to keep you accountable! Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing and stay accountable to your practice in the new year, beginning January 27.

Is your New Year's resolution to write more? Look no further because The Common's Weekly Writes program is here to help keep you accountable. Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create, beginning January 27. Sign up!