Last night The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation gave ten writers $50,000 each for the  2010 Whiting Writers’ Awards–celebrating “exceptional talent and promise in early career.” The complete list (and bios) of the authors follows below.

During the ceremony at the Morgan Library & Museum Foundation president Dr. Robert L. Belknap told the winners not to worry about finding blockbuster audiences. “Perhaps they will become incredibly important to a readership that hasn’t even been born yet,” he explained.

Keynote speaker Peter Matthiessen reassured the nominees with tales of his own successes and failures. The great writer shared a rejection note with the recepients: “Dear Peter, James Fenimore Cooper wrote this book 150 years ago, but he wrote it better.” Matthiessen (pictured)  laughed as he recited the note from memory: “Right then, I could have used a Whiting.” Stay tuned for video coverage from the ceremony over the next few days.

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After five years as editor-in-chief of the Paris Review, Philip Gourevitch has stepped down–leaving open one of the most coveted spots in literary journalism.

Most recently, Gourevitch was the co-author of “Standard Operating Procedure.” According to the NY Observer, Paris Review Foundation director Terry McDonnell, New York Review of Books editor Bob Silvers, and Paris Review founder Peter Matthiessen will lead a literary search party to replace the editor.

Gourevitch admitted that he was worn out from working on a new book while editing the journal. Here’s more from the article: “Mr. Gourevitch said he felt like he’d done a pretty good job holding it together, but that he felt ‘extremely exhausted;’ at the end. ‘I didn’t want to do that again,’ he said.”