Stanford, CA--Chouette (Ecco, 2021) a novel by Claire Oshetsky, and The Dragons, the Giant, the Women (Graywolf Press, 2020), a memoir by Wayétu Moore, are the recipients of the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing administered by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation. The biennial prize honors the life and legacy of novelist, playwright, and short-story author William Saroyan by encouraging and recognizing new and emerging writers.
Michael A. Keller, the Ida M. Green University Librarian at Stanford, announced awards of $5,000 to each winner and remarked, “These two books are fascinating and so obviously the results of serious and sustained creative effort by their authors that we are enormously pleased to continue the tradition of recognizing such new authors, hopefully to help them propel their literary careers.”
Claire Oshetsky, winner in the fiction category, lives in California and has published works in Salon, Wired, and the New York Times. Her debut novel, Chouette, which was also longlisted for the 2022 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, deftly blends a dream of an owl, introduced in the very first sentence, with the reality of mothering a child with a congenital disorder.
The San Francisco Chronicle praised Chouette as “surrealism at its best” and as a book that “forces parents to consider their relationship with their children,” while the Saroyan Prize fiction judges summarized it as “a surreal and rollicking feminist tour de force about motherhood, marriage, and family.”
The finalists in fiction were A Sense of the Whole (Orison Books, 2020), stories by Siamak Vossoughi and The Office of Historical Corrections (Riverhead Books, 2020), a novella and stories by Danielle Evans. In the spirit of Saroyan’s depictions of Armenian Americans, their stories abound with Iranian American, Black, and multiracial characters whose encounters and experiences resonate universally.
Wayétu Moore, winner in the nonfiction category, resides in Brooklyn and is the founder of One Moore Book, a non-profit organization that encourages reading among children of countries with low literacy rates and underrepresented cultures. Her first book, She Would Be King, was a novel.
The New York Times Book Review wrote of Moore’s The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: “This memoir adds an essential voice to the genre of migrant literature, challenging false popular narratives that migration is optional, permanent and always results in a better life.”
The Saroyan Prize nonfiction judges said, “This memoir intricately weaves Moore’s stories of her family’s escape from the first Liberian war, their reunion in Sierra Leone, their eventual immigration to the United States, Moore’s complicated life as a black woman and an immigrant in (of all places) Texas, and finally her return to Liberia—all while trying to find her own place in the world. This is a crazy-quilt, heart-wrenching, fist-clenching, heart-expanding story of one woman’s quest to find something real in a reckless, violent, cruel but still beautiful world.”
The finalist in nonfiction was Kin (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) by Shawna Kay Rodenberg, described by its publisher as “a heart stopping memoir of a wrenching Appalachian girlhood and a multilayered portrait of a misrepresented people.”
This year’s panel of distinguished Saroyan Prize judges included Sumbul Ali-Karamali, John Bender, Richard Holeton, Elizabeth McKenzie, Scott Setrakian, and former Saroyan Prize winner Lori Jakiela (2016). Over 220 volunteers, primarily members of the Stanford Alumni Association, read the entries and provided initial evaluations to the judging committee.
“We are especially grateful to our judges and readers, both new and returning, who make the Saroyan Prize possible,” Keller said. “The noticeable presence of Saroyanesque topics and themes in so many of the nearly 300 entries is testimony to the perseverance of the works of one of California’s and our nation’s greatest writers, William Saroyan, who just happened to be an immigrant from Armenia.”
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Jennifer Croft awarded the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing by Stanford Libraries
Adjei-Brenyah and Croft were selected as winners, among 247 eligible submissions, for their ability to evoke raw emotion and masterfully leverage the power of language with their writing.
Stanford, CA--Friday Black (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Homesick: A Memoir (Unnamed Press, 2019) by Jennifer Croft are the recipients of the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing awarded by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation. The biennial prize was designed to encourage and recognize emerging authors in memory of William Saroyan the Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. Friday Black and Homesick: A Memoir are debut books for the authors; each will receive a $5,000 prize.
“The goal of the Saroyan Prize is to raise awareness of the work of our award recipients as well as the wonderfully talented authors who make up our shortlist,” said Mimi Calter, deputy university librarian at Stanford. “I am always pleased to review the submissions and this year I think the spirit of William Saroyan’s legacy is clearly reflected in our winners and finalists.”
Friday Black, a collection of 12 stories that won in the fiction category, confronts issues of race and social injustice head-on. Adjei-Brenyah’s explosive voice is timely as the United States wrestles with its history. His talent is made apparent almost immediately as his writings intentionally teeter between carnage and compassion leaving readers to process a series of intense emotions. In addition to the Saroyan Prize for Writing Award, Friday Black received the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and earned Adjei-Brenyah recognition by the National Book Foundation as one of their “5 Under 35 Authors.”
Adjei-Brenyah places ordinary characters in extreme situations, whether it be race as a sport, ethics of genetics, or a thriving culture of greed and consumerism, the short stories in Friday Black uses extraordinary examples to give weight to reality. These stories tackle instances of racism and unrest and allow readers to explore the many ways the fight for humanity can occur. The book will challenge and inspire, and provides ample topics to dive deep into conversation.
In his review of Friday Black, George Saunders, renowned writer of short stories and professor of English at Syracuse University wrote, “These stories are an excitement and a wonder: strange, crazed, urgent and funny, yet classical in the way they take on stubborn human problems...”
The finalists in the fiction category were Some Trick (New Directions, 2019) by Helen DeWitt and The Hundred Wells of Salaga: A Novel (Other Press, 2019) by Ayesha Harruna Attah.
The Saroyan Prize in nonfiction went to Croft, an award-winning translator who artfully intertwines photography and poetic prose in the retelling of the challenges and tragedies that filled her childhood. Homesick: A Memoir is an intimate coming of age story that reveals the foundation on which Croft has developed an internationally recognized career and the healing and perseverance involved along the way.
Although the story is hers, she tells it through sisters Amy and Zoe. Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy (Croft) flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first. Amy’s first love appears in the form of her Russian tutor Sasha, but when she enters university at the age of 15 her life changes drastically and with tragic results.
“Homesick is brilliant and lovely and breaks the boundaries of traditional memoir in ways that are exciting and human and real,” noted a judge as part of the Saroyan Prize review. “Jennifer's clear and direct prose, her playful exploration of language, and her ability to dive into the complex issues of family and the heart made Homesick leap above...”
Finalists for nonfiction included How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) by Alexander Chee and In the Dream House: A Memoir (Graywolf Press, 2019) by Carmen Maria Machado.
This year’s panel of judges included Sumbul Ali-Karamali, Patrick Hunt, Elizabeth McKenzie, Hank Saroyan, and former Saroyan Prize winners Mark Arax (2005) and Lori Jakiela (2016). Additionally, over 225 volunteers, many Stanford alumni, participated as readers for the 2020 Prize.
Calter also offered praise for the volunteers. “Even with the difficulties of 2020, our judges and volunteer book reviewers were committed to seeing this Prize through. It is because of their determination and spirit that the Prize was able to be held in spite of the challenges of a pandemic."
"In the Distance" and "On Trails" win the 2018 Stanford Libraries’ William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Hernán Diaz and Robert Moor are the 2018 winners of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. The prize, established in 2003 by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, commemorates Saroyan’s life and legacy, and just as importantly, honors emerging authors who have found a distinctive creative voice. Diaz and Moor will each receive a $5,000 award.
Diaz won in the fiction category for In the Distance (Coffee House Press), which follows a young Swedish immigrant who finds himself penniless and alone in California. In search of his brother, the boy travels east against the current of emigrants pushing west, meeting naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.
In an interview with Diaz about In the Distance, the online journal The Nation wrote, “The prose is as unbroken as the horizon. . . . It’s as if Herman Melville had navigated the American West, instead of the ocean.”
Moor was inspired by a 2009 hike thru the Appalachian for his breakthrough book On Trails (Simon & Schuster), which claimed top seat in the nonfiction category. Moor explores the paths that lie beneath our feet, shines a light on the many paths that connect our world, and illuminates the ways in which those paths guide our lives.
“On every scale of life,” Moor writes, “from microscopic cells to herds of elephants, creatures can be found relying on trails to reduce an overwhelming array of options to a single expeditious route. Without trails, we would be lost.”
Stanford’s Deputy University Librarian Mimi Calter, who also oversees the administration of the Saroyan Prize, was enthusiastic about the selections. “The styles of both Diaz and Moor engage readers—differently but both effectively,” said Calter, “They are well deserving of recognition and remind us why it is important to give attention to new literary voices.”
Finalists to Diaz and Moor include:
Fiction
The Traders by Scott Shibuya Brown (Black Lawrence Press)
Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Nonfiction
Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere but Here by Angela Palm (Graywolf Press)
This year’s distinguished panel of judges included Minal Hajratwala, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Abby Smith Rumsey for the fiction category and Mark Arax, Hank Saroyan, and Barbara Warnock for nonfiction. Additionally, nearly 200 volunteers, many Stanford alumni, participated as readers for the over 200 submissions.
Calter also offered praise for the volunteers. “The devotion of the judges is quite admirmable, in fact it is their commitment, and those of our alumni and library friends who serve as readers, that keeps this Prize moving forward,” she added. Calter also noted how the Prize has provided great opportunities for alumni to stay connected to campus and the Libraries well after graduation.
Two former Saroyan Prize winners have books slated for release in 2018.
Margalit Fox, the recipient of the 2014 Saroyan Prize for nonfiction, takes readers through the thrilling murder case where the creator of Sherlock Holmes channels his fictional character to become a real-life detective to exonerate a German Jew wrongly convicted of murder in Conan Doyle for the Defense. And in October, Kiese Laymon, who received the 2014 Saroyan Prize for fiction, is set to release Heavy, a powerful and provocative memoir that explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation.
For more information on the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing visit https://library.stanford.edu/saroyan
ADAA Announces Judges for Saroyan/Paul $10,000 Playwriting Prize
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) recently announced the honorary jury for the 2016 cycle of the biennial Saroyan/Paul $10,000 Human Rights Prize in Playwriting.
The judges are Rob Drummer, associate dramaturg and director from the Bush Theatre in London; Neil McPherson, artistic director of the Finborough Theatre in London since 1999; and Simon Levy, artistic director of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles since 1993. All three judges will preside over the three finalist scripts in 2016.
The preliminary evaluation of scripts has begun, as synopses have been pouring in from around the globe. The synopsis submission period for the contest has been extended to Feb. 7.
Playwrights whose submitted synopses meet ADAA’s guideline specifications will be chosen by the selection committee to submit their full scripts from March 1 to April 24. Scores will be awarded to each script based on excellence of writing and for furthering the theme of “human rights/social justice.”
Lori Jakiela and T. Geronimo Johnson win Stanford’s 2016 Saroyan Prize for Writing
The biennial literary award given by the Stanford Libraries was awarded to two writers who draw on their personal experiences in their work.
BY GABRIELLE KARAMPELAS
Lori Jakiela and T. Geronimo Johnson, the two winning authors of the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, pull from personal and real-world experiences in their literature.
Such a writing technique characterized the award-winning work of the late literary legend Saroyan, for whom the prize is named. The Stanford University Libraries administers the prize every two years.
Jakiela’s Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (Atticus Books, 2015) is the story of one woman’s search for her birth mother coupled with the parallel story of her own motherhood and her own re-making. She explores what it means to be a mother, what it is like to have two very different blood connections and what it means to form a family.
Review: In ‘Ithaca,’ Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks Reunite for a War Story
“Ithaca,” Meg Ryan’s directorial debut, is a quiet, bittersweet adaptation of the William Saroyan novel “The Human Comedy,” a story about a 14-year-old named Homer who delivers telegrams in the small town of the film’s title. It’s 1942, so many of those telegrams contain the worst possible news for the families of soldiers.
Tom Hanks teams up again with Ms. Ryan in the cast, she as Homer’s mother, he as the father who has recently died. This story, though, is the flip side of the war movies and mini-series Mr. Hanks is generally associated with — it’s a story of the home front, not of the cacophonous battlefields. In any case, Ms. Ryan and Mr. Hanks are bit players here; the real focus is Alex Neustaedter, a relative newcomer who does a creditable job as Homer (a role played by Mickey Rooney in a 1943 film version).
Intellectual Renaissance Foundation Founded by Arthur Janibekyan Buys William Saroyan’s House
In 2015 the foundation acquired William Saroyan’s house, located in 2729 Griffith Way, Fesno, California, aiming to turn it into house museum. The foundation plans to collect books, furniture items, paintings and souvenirs, as well as some personal items, related to William Saroyan.
The visitors of the house museum will be offered tours with a guide, as well as an opportunity to use the open-air library. A special cinema hall will be constructed, where the museum will organize movie screenings of documentary movies about William Saroyan, as well as some feature films, based on Saroyan’s works. Within the framework of the project the saroyanhouse.com web site will be launched, which will present Saroyan’s life and cultural activities, as well as notify the visitors about the future events taking place in the museum.