MacArthur Fellowship Increases to $625,000
September 20, 2013
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that renowned MacArthur Fellowship, aka the MacArthur “genius grant” (which annually goes to about two-dozen of America’s leading scientists, artists, historians, and more, always including a few creative writers) has increased its award from $500,000 to $625,000. Spread over five years for each recipient, the annual amount of the fellowship will now increase from $100,000 to $125,000 per year. The stipend raise is the result of an internal review conducted in 2012. MacArthur Fellows, past and current MacArthur executives, and Foundation staff were polled and interviewed. Naturally, this revealed strong agreement in how such generous funding positively affects its beneficiaries.
However, the survey also found there to be a lack of transparency in the selection process, which is done largely in secret and by nomination only. According to MacArthur Fellows Program vice president Cecilia A. Conrad, “We will be making some small adjustments to the program in response to the review.”
The 2013 recipients will be announced on September 25th. Last year’s Fellows included novelists Junot Diaz and Dinaw Mengestu, and the 2011 Fellows featured the poets Kay Ryan and A.E. Stallings. Since the program’s inception in 1981, 873 Fellowships have been awarded.
Source: The Chicago Tribune
