The AWP Board of Directors presented this year’s George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature to Bob Shacochis. AWP Board Chair Bonnie Culver announced the award at this year’s conference in Minneapolis and remarked that Shacochis is “a writer who teaches partly by his own example of high artistic accomplishment, by his own dedication to literature, and by his own curiosity about world affairs. He has helped to make his students’ horizons wider, in seeing bigger possibilities in literature, in publishing and reaching their readers, and in developing their own curiosity about the world and America’s place within it.” 

Novelist Marlon James, emcee for the awards reception, introduced Shacochis to the audience and quoted one of his many nominators, a former student of Shacochis, Ed Tarkington: “Bob pushed my writing further than anyone else before, but he also gave me the praise and confidence to find my voice. He is not an easy master, but he earns praise and respect by giving respect to his students, taking their goals and dreams seriously.”

Receiving the award, Shacochis said, “Within the solitude and isolation of a writer’s life, you might not always see it clearly, but writing is a gift to a community. And let’s face it, somebody was kind and helpful to you at some point early in your writing life. It meant the world, didn’t it? It’s really a good idea to pass it on.”

Shacochis’s honors include a National Book Award for his story collection, Easy in the Islands, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his latest novel, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul. The George Garrett Award comes with a $2,000 honorarium, a lifetime membership to AWP, and travel, accommodation, and registration for the AWP annual conference. The judges for this year’s award were Matt Bell, Sue William Silverman, and Tree Swenson. Nominations for the award are accepted each year from August 1 through September 15.

Please see the George Garrett Award page of our website for more information on the award and its recipients.