What makes the Whitings unique?

We try to find people very early in their careers. So we consider ourselves kind of truffle hunters, roaming around in the forest, trying to unearth talent. We do that because this is the stage where writers need the most support and help and encouragement. The prize is by nomination: we reach out to people—brilliant readers in the field—who then tell us who we should be paying attention to, who we should put in front of the judges. So this isn’t a prize for a book per se. It’s about work that’s been already done, of course, but it’s also about what is yet to come.

What other programs does the foundation offer?

We’re most well known for the Whiting Awards, but we’ve got two other younger programs that both emerged from paying attention to our authors’ experiences as writers. One is our Creative Nonfiction Grant. We now offer 10 grants every year to writers who are working on deeply researched works of nonfiction, and they get $40,000 each, which can help people get to the finish line. The other is the Literary Magazine Prize to support extraordinary literary magazines, which are the incubators of great writing in this country.

What’s ahead for the foundation?
What we’d like to do more of is supporting writers one on one—recognizing their work and figuring out what they need from us over their lifespan as creative people.