The AWP/ George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature

The 2008 AWP/George Garrett Award winner is Doris Betts.

AWP welcomes letters from our members who wish to nominate individuals for the George Garrett Award. Letters of nominations must be postmarked between August 1st and September 15th, 2008.

Contemporary literature and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) have benefited from the efforts of many teachers, writers, editors, and administrators who have done their utmost to help the next generation of writers find their way as artists and as literary professionals. By bestowing the George Garrett Award, AWP hopes to recognize a few of those individuals who have made exceptional donations of care, time, labor, and money to support writers and their literary accomplishments. This award is named after George Garrett, who made exceptional contributions to his fellow writers as a teacher, mentor, editor, friend, board member, and good spirit. George Garrett served for many years as the editor of Intro, an annual anthology of work by emerging writers; he served as one of the founding members of the AWP Board of Directors; he taught creative writing and literature for more than forty years; and he is the author of more than thirty books. As a writer, teacher, mentor, editor, or inspiration, George Garrett has helped many young writers who are now major contributors to contemporary letters.

The award will include a $1,000 honorarium from AWP in addition to travel, accommodations, and registration for attending the AWP Annual Conference, where the award will be publicly announced and conferred.

Criteria for the Award:

The Award will be given to a living individual who has demonstrated exceptional generosity to writers by excellent work in one or more of the following activities:

• Teaching creative writing and literature
• Serving as a mentor, supporter, or guide to writers
• Publishing or editing literature, especially works by emerging or neglected talents
• Building new resources that benefit writers (reading series, presses, awards, endowments, fellowships, stipends, programs, community centers, foundations, etc.)
• Administering to programs or institutions that benefit writers or that expand audiences for contemporary authors
• Working generally to make North America a more supportive place for contemporary literature and its makers.

To receive the award, the recipient must be willing to travel to the AWP Annual Conference.

Eligibility:

Any living individual who meets the above criteria may be nominated for the award except for the following: members of the current AWP Board or Staff; family members of the AWP Board or Staff; and former AWP Board Members or Staff who served AWP within the last four years.

A former Board Member or Staff Member of AWP may be nominated for the award only after at least four years have lapsed between the deadline for nominations and his or her last official day of service to AWP. Previous recipients of the Award may not be nominated or considered. Self-nominations will not be considered.

Guidelines for Letters of Nominations:

Each fall, AWP invites members to nominate candidates for the Award by sending letters of nomination to the Executive Director of AWP. The letters should include the following features:

• An explanation of how your nominee fulfills the criteria cataloged above.
• Specificity. Please note where the nominee did good works, length of service, names of writers helped, or detailed descriptions of what your nominee did or built in support of writers.
• Brevity. Your letter of nomination should be no longer than two pages, single-spaced.
• Attribution. Your name, return address, and signature must appear on your letter.
• Hard copies of letters only may be submitted; no emailed submissions will be considered.

Send Letters of Nomination to:

David Fenza
Executive Director
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Carty House, Mail Stop 1E3
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

• Letters must be postmarked between August 1st and September 15th, 2008.
• The AWP Board of Directors will select a recipient for the prize in January.
• In January, the recipient of the Award will by notified by AWP.
• In the spring, at the AWP Annual Conference, the Award will be conferred to the recipient before the Keynote Address.

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