Lannan Literary Awards

The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality", according to the foundation. The foundation's awards are some of the most lucrative in the world: The 2006 awards for poetry, fiction and nonfiction each came with $150,000 making them some of the richest literary prizes in the world.

The awards reflect the philosophy governing the Lannan Foundation, a family foundation that describes itself as "dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities."

Awards have gone both to literary stars, such as W.S. Merwin, and also to those more known as much for their politics as for their literary talents, such as Barbara Ehrenreich and Edward Said. The foundation also gives out a "Cultural Freedom Prize" for the stated purpose of recognizing "people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry, and expression." Prize winners include Robert Fisk, Eduardo Galeano, Claudia Andujar, Mahmoud Darwish, Arundhati Roy, Helen Caldicott, and Cornel West.

The foundation does not accept applications for awards or fellowships. Candidates are suggested anonymously "by a network of writers, literary scholars, publishers, and editors", with the foundation's literary committee making the final determination.

Lannan Literary Award for Poetry

 * 2010: none
 * 2009: none
 * 2008: August Kleinzahler
 * 2007: none
 * 2006: Bruce Weigl
 * 2005: Pattiann Rogers
 * 2004: Peter Reading
 * 2002: Alan Dugan
 * 2002: Peter Dale Scott
 * 2000: Herbert Morris
 * 2000: Jay Wright
 * 1999: Dennis O'Driscoll
 * 1999: C.D. Wright
 * 1999: Louise Glück
 * 1998: Frank Bidart
 * 1998: Jon Davis
 * 1998: Mary Oliver
 * 1997: Ken Smith
 * 1996: Anne Carson
 * 1996: Lucille Clifton
 * 1996: William Trevor
 * 1996: Donald Justice
 * 1995: Hayden Carruth
 * 1995: Carol Ann Duffy
 * 1995: Arthur Sze
 * 1995: Li-Young Lee
 * 1994: Simon Armitage
 * 1994: Eavan Boland
 * 1994: Linda Hogan
 * 1994: Jack Gilbert
 * 1994: Richard Kenney
 * 1993: Cyrus Cassells
 * 1993: Denise Levertov
 * 1993: Benjamin Alire Saenz
 * 1992: A. R. Ammons
 * 1992: Thomas Centolella
 * 1992: Killarney Clary
 * 1992: Suzanne Gardinier
 * 1992: Susan Mitchell
 * 1992: Luis J. Rodriguez
 * 1991: William Bronk
 * 1991: Chrystos
 * 1991: Pattiann Rogers
 * 1991: Herbert Morris
 * 1990: Derek Mahon
 * 1990: Seamus Heaney
 * 1989: Cid Corman
 * 1989: George Evans
 * 1989: Peter Levitt

Lannan Literary Award for Fiction

 * 2007: A. L. Kennedy
 * 2007: Susan Straight
 * 2006: Kathryn Davis
 * 2004: Rikki Ducornet
 * 2003: Edward P. Jones
 * 2003: Alistair MacLeod
 * 2003: John McGahern
 * 2000: Robert Coover
 * 2000: David Malouf
 * 2000: Cynthia Ozick
 * 2000: Leslie Marmon Silko
 * 1999: Gish Jen
 * 1999: Jamaica Kincaid
 * 1999: Richard Powers
 * 1999: Joanna Scott
 * 1998: J.M. Coetzee


 * 1998: Lydia Davis
 * 1998: Stuart Dybek
 * 1998: Lois-Ann Yamanaka
 * 1997: John Banville
 * 1997: Anne Michaels
 * 1997: Grace Paley
 * 1996: Howard Norman
 * 1996: Tim Pears
 * 1996: David Foster Wallace
 * 1995: Louis de Bernières
 * 1995: Mary Morrissy
 * 1995: Alice Munro
 * 1994: Edward P. Jones
 * 1994: Steven Millhauser


 * 1994: Caryl Phillips
 * 1994: Stephen Wright
 * 1993: Rikki Ducornet
 * 1993: Denis Johnson
 * 1993: Carole Maso
 * 1993: Paul West
 * 1992: Frank Chin
 * 1992: Gilbert Sorrentino
 * 1991: Sandra Cisneros
 * 1991: Alexander Theroux
 * 1991: John Edgar Wideman
 * 1990: John Hawkes
 * 1989: John Berger

Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction

 * 2007: Mike Davis
 * 2006: Tim Flannery
 * 2005: Adam Hochschild
 * 2005: David G. Campbell
 * 2004: Luís Alberto Urrea
 * 2003: Rebecca Solnit
 * 2002: Wade Davis
 * 2002: Lewis Hyde


 * 2001: Barbara Ehrenreich
 * 2000: Bill McKibben
 * 2000: Carl Safina
 * 1999: Jared Diamond
 * 1999: Gary Paul Nabhan
 * 1998: Chet Raymo
 * 1998: Lawrence Weschler
 * 1998: Howard Zinn
 * 1997: David Quammen
 * 1996: David Abram


 * 1996: Charles Bowden
 * 1995: Scott Russell Sanders
 * 1995: Richard K. Nelson
 * 1994: Jonathan Kozol
 * 1993: Edward Hoagland
 * 1993: Terry Tempest Williams
 * 1992: Noam Chomsky
 * 1991: Christopher Hitchens
 * 1990: Barry Lopez
 * 1989: Wendell Berry

2005 Lannan Literary Award for An Especially Notable Book

 * 2008: Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, by Sheldon Wolin
 * 2008: Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith, by Philip Kitcher
 * 2008: Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, by John Gray
 * 2005: The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War, by Andrew J. Bacevich

Lannan Literary Fellowship

 * 2010: C.E. Morgan
 * 2010: Michael McGriff
 * 2009: Sarah Lindsay
 * 2009: Valzhyna Mort
 * 2008: Charles D'Ambrosio
 * 2008: Katie Ford
 * 2008: Ilya Kaminsky
 * 2008: Glenn Patterson
 * 2007: Paula Gunn Allen
 * 2007: Daniel Alarcón
 * 2007: Edie Meidav
 * 2007: Dinaw Mengestu
 * 2007: Sinéad Morrissey
 * 2007: Jeremy Scahill
 * 2006: Chris Hedges
 * 2006: Elizabeth Kolbert
 * 2006: Charles C. Mann
 * 2006: Peter Orner
 * 2006: Brian Turner
 * 2006: Frank X Walker
 * 2005: Nadeem Aslam
 * 2005: Judy Budnitz
 * 2005: Freeman House
 * 2004: Edwidge Danticat
 * 2004: Thomas Frank


 * 2004: Mavis Gallant
 * 2004: Micheline Aharonian Marcom
 * 2004: Rebecca Seiferle
 * 2003: Chris Abani
 * 2003: Deborah Eisenberg
 * 2003: George Evans
 * 2003: Linda Gregg
 * 2003: Chris Offutt
 * 2003: Mary Rakow
 * 2002: Ann Cummins
 * 2002: James Galvin
 * 2002: James Alan McPherson
 * 2002: Naomi Shihab Nye
 * 2002: Ahdaf Soueif
 * 2002: David James Duncan
 * 2002: Lewis Hyde
 * 2002: Ruben Martinez
 * 2001: Barbara Ehrenreich
 * 2001: Deborah Levy
 * 2001: David Wong Louie
 * 2001: Lorrie Moore
 * 2001: George Saunders
 * 1993: William Everson

Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award

 * 2007: Anne Stevenson
 * 2006: Gilbert Sorrentino
 * 2004: W.S. Merwin
 * 2002: John Berger
 * 2002: Peter Matthiessen
 * 2001: Robert Creeley
 * 2001: Edward Said
 * 2000: Evan S. Connell
 * 1999: Adrienne Rich
 * 1998: John Barth
 * 1997: William H. Gass
 * 1996: R. S. Thomas
 * 1993: William Gaddis
 * 1989: Kay Boyle