2010 Fadiman Medal

Acclaimed author Jane Smiley has selected Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid as the recipient of The 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal. This award, with a cash prize of $5,000, was established in 2000 to recognize a work of fiction by a living American author that is deserving of rediscovery and a wider readership. The award was originally chosen by a committee, but the Center now enlists a recognized writer to choose a worthy book published no less than ten years ago.

This award is generously sponsored
by Reba and Dave Williams.

Jane Smiley presented the award to Jamaica Kincaid on April 14, 2010 at The Center for Fiction. To listen to a podcast of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Award presentation on WNYC?s podcast series Talk To Me, click here.

Annie John is a haunting and provocative story of a young girl growing up on the island of Antigua. A classic coming-of-age story in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Kincaid's novel focuses on a universal, tragic, and often comic theme: the loss of childhood. Annie’s voice—urgent, demanding to be heard—is one that will not soon be forgotten by readers.

"So touching and familiar it could be happening to any of us . . . and that's exactly the book's strength, its wisdom, its truth." –The New York Times Book Review

Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, and My Brother.

Jane Smiley is the author of sixteen books, including A Thousand Acres, Horse Heaven, and most recently, The Georges and the Jewels.

The 2007 Clifton Fadiman Medal Recipient

LORE SEGAL for Other People's Houses selected by Cynthia Ozick

Lore Segal was born in Vienna and educated at the University of London. Winner of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and the Carl Sandburg Award for Fiction, Lore Segal is the author of the novels Other People’s Houses and Her First American (both available from The New Press), and several books for children. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, and New Republic. Her first major work of fiction in twenty years, Shakespeare’s Kitchen, is being released this year. Lore Segal lives in New York City.

Other People’s Houses

Originally published in 1964 and hailed by critics including Cynthia Ozick and Elie Wiesel, Other People’s Houses is Lore Segal’s internationally acclaimed semi-autobiographical first novel. Nine months after Hitler takes Austria, a ten-year-old girl leaves Vienna aboard a children’s transport that is to take her and several hundred children to safety in England. For the next seven years she lives in “other people’s houses,” the homes of the wealthy Orthodox Jewish Levines, the working-class Hoopers, and two elderly sisters in their formal Victorian household. An insightful and witty depiction of the ways of life of those who gave her refuge, Other People’s Houses is a wonderfully memorable novel of the immigrant experience.

Click here to read Cynthia Ozick's speech about Lore Segal from the 2007 Awards Dinner.

The 2006 Clifton Fadiman Medal Recipient

ROBERT COOVER
for Pricksongs and Descants
selected and presented by T.C. BOYLE

ROBERT COOVER is the award-winning author of thirteen novels including: Ghost Town, The Public Burning, Pinocchio in Venice, Pricksongs & Descants, and The Origin of the Brunists. He has won fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been the recipient of the William Faulkner Award, the American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, and The Lannan Literary Award in Fiction. He teaches writing with a concentration in electronic and experimental fiction at Brown University.

The 2005 Winner: James Purdy

James Purdy and Jonathan Franzen in 2005, James Purdy young, and Eustace Chrisholm book cover

In 2005, Jonathan Franzen, author of The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, and How to Be Alone, was asked to serve as selector and presenter. Franzen chose author James Purdy and his controversial 1967 novel, Eustace Chisholm and the Works. When published, the book outraged the New York literary establishment. It has since become a classic of gay literature.

With the announcement that James Purdy passed away on March 13, 2009, we honor his memory by republishing here Franzen's moving tribute to James from the 2005 Awards Dinner.

Read Jonathan Franzen’s Speech on James Purdy

James Purdy was a novelist, poet, playwright and artist. During his 45-year career Purdy published 17 novels, including Malcolm (Farrar, 1959), Cabot Wright Begins (Farrar, 1964), I am Elijah Thrush (Doubleday, 1972), and On Glory’s Course (Viking, 1984). His 1976 novel, Shallow Grave (Arbor House, 1975) was produced as a major motion picture in 1988 starring Patrick Dempsey. Purdy was the author of several short story collections, and many of his plays were performed off-Broadway. Edward Albee adapted Malcolm for the stage.