Novelist Allegra Goodman (seated) was the guest speaker at last week's ceremony honoring the latest winners of the Rona Jaffe Foundation awards, presented annually to women writers in the early stages of their literary careers. From left to right, the recipients of this year's $15,000 prizes are: Melissa Range, Emily Rapp, Rita Mae Reese, Rivka Galchen, Ellen Litman, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts. Rapp's memoir, Poster Child, and Litman's collection of short stories, The Last Chicken in America, will both be published next January, while Rhodes-Pitts's nonfiction book, Harlem Is Nowhere, is scheduled for a 2008 release.

photo: Star Black