Margaret Atwood Advises the 2009 Whiting Writers’ Award Recipients

“Congratulations to all ten of you. I’ll put you all in my blog.” author Margaret Atwood told the 2009 Whiting Writers’ Award recipients last night. She delivered some droll advice for the winners: “Write a cookbook or a book about vampires. Or troll through the classics, adding monsters…Or, better yet, write a vampire cookbook.”

Last night, ten authors received a $50,000 check from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, part of the 25th annual Whiting Writers’ Awards. Since 1985, the philanthropic foundation has given emerging creative writers these grants. Previous winners have included: “Denis Johnson, Michael Cunningham, Alice McDermott, and Colson Whitehead. The complete list of winners follows after the jump.

GalleyCat was there, shooting video interviews with the winners and finding out more about Atwood’s recent foray into the world of Twitter. “It’s been quite a lot of fun. I can send out desperate tweets and 15 people will answer my question,” she explained after the ceremony. Twitter hadn’t corrupted her writing style, she concluded: “It’s a descendant of the telegram. Telegrams required succinctness because they charged by the word. It’s a message.”

2009 Whiting Writers’ Awards Recipients

Jericho Brown for poetry.

Jay Hopler for poetry.

Adam Johnson for fiction.

Rajiv Joseph for plays.

Joan Kane for poetry.

Michael Meyer for nonfiction.

Nami Mun for fiction.

Hugh Raffles for nonfiction.

Salvatore Scibona for fiction.

Vu Tran for fiction.

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