Elevate your local knowledge

Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!

Select Region

Selecting your primary region ensures you get the stories that matter to you first.

6 emerging female writers receive $30,000 Rona Jaffe Awards to help them complete projects

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Fiction writer Vanessa Hua and nonfiction writer Meehan Crist are among this year’s recipients of the Rona Jaffe Awards, $30,000 prizes for emerging female authors.

Hua is working on a novel about a Chinese factory girl, and Crist is studying traumatic brain injury.

The other four winners announced Tuesday were poets Ashley M. Jones and Britteney Black Rose Kapri and fiction writers Amanda Rae and Natalie Haney Tilghman.

The Jaffe grants will help the winners complete their current projects, whether allowing Tilghman to travel to Italy for research on her novel about an Italian-American family or giving Jones the time to work on her debut collection, “Magic City Gospel.”

The awards were established in 1995. Previous winners include Lan Samantha Chang, Eula Biss and Tracy K. Smith.

News from © The Associated Press, . All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community?

The Associated Press

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.