Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize

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Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
Awarded forBest book-length work of prose fiction by an American woman
Country United States
Presented by University of Rochester   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Reward(s) US$7,500
First awarded1975;48 years ago (1975)
Most recent recipientMarian Crotty
Most awards Mary Gordon (2)
Website https://rochester.edu/college/wst/kafka_prize/   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize is a literary award presented annually for the "best book-length work of prose fiction" by an American woman. [1] The award has been given by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Department of English at the University of Rochester since 1975. [2]

Contents

Each winner is awarded $15,000. [3]

The prize is named for a 30-year-old editor killed in an auto accident. Family, friends, and associates in the publishing industry endowed the prize as a memorial to Kafka and "the literary standards and personal ideals for which she stood". [1]

Winners

Year of WorkRecipientTitle of WorkPublisher
1975 Jessamyn West The Massacre at Fall Creek Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich
1976 Judith Guest Ordinary People Viking Press
1977 Toni Morrison Song of Solomon Alfred A. Knopf
1978 Mary Gordon Final Payments Random House
1979 Barbara Chase-Riboud Sally Hemings Viking Press
1980 Anne Tyler Morgan's Passing Alfred A. Knopf
1981 Mary Gordon The Company of Women Random House
1982 Mary Lee Settle The Killing Ground Farrar, Straus and Giroux
1983 Joan Chase During the Reign of the Queen of Persia Harper & Row
1984 Rosellen Brown Civil Wars Alfred A. Knopf
1985 Ursula K. Le Guin Always Coming Home Harper & Row
1986 Hortense Calisher The Bobby Soxer Doubleday
1987 Gail Godwin A Southern Family William Morrow and Company
1988 Kathryn Davis Labrador Farrar, Straus and Giroux
1989 Marianne Wiggins John Dollar Harper & Row
1990 Valerie Martin Mary Reilly Doubleday
1990 Karen Tei Yamashita Through the Arc of the Rain Forest Coffee House Press
1993 Sherri Szeman The Kommandant’s Mistress HarperCollins
1994 Ann Patchett Taft Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
1995 Melissa Pritchard The Instinct for BlissZoland Books
1996 Kathleen Cambor The Book of Mercy Farrar, Straus and Giroux
1997 Cristina García The Agüero Sisters Alfred A. Knopf
1998 Nicole Mones Lost in Translation Dell Publishing
1999 Susan Hubbard Blue Money University of Missouri Press
2000 Carrie Brown The Hatbox Baby Workman Publishing Company
2001 Edie Meidav The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2002 Joyce Hackett Disturbance of the Inner Ear Carroll & Graf
2003 Kate Moses Wintering St. Martin's Press
2004 Sarah Shun-lien Bynum Madeleine Is Sleeping Harcourt
2005 Jill Ciment The Tattoo Artist Pantheon Books
2006 Nell Freudenberger The Dissident Ecco Press
2007 Miranda Beverly-Whittemore Set Me Free Warner Books
2008 Saher Alam The Groom to Have Been Spiegel & Grau
2009 Isla Morley Come Sunday Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2010 Linda LeGarde Grover The Dance Boots University of Georgia Press
2011 Amy Waldman The Submission Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2012 Anna Keesey Little Century Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2013 Ru Freeman On Sal Mal Lane Graywolf Press
2014 Jacinda Townsend Saint Monkey W. W. Norton & Company
2015 Mia Alvar In the Country Alfred A. Knopf
2016 Elizabeth Poliner As Close to Us as Breathing Lee Boudreaux Books
2017 Marian Crotty What Counts as Love University of Iowa Press
2018 Tiffany Quay Tyson The Past Is Never Simon & Schuster
2019 Margaret Wilkerson Sexton The Revisioners Counterpoint
2020 Danielle Evans The Office of Historical Corrections Riverhead Books
2021 Rebecca Sacks City of a Thousand Gates HarperCollins

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize". Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies . University of Rochester . Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. "Past Recipients of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize". Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies . University of Rochester . Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  3. "Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize". University of Rochester . Retrieved 15 February 2023.

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