New York, Apr 11 (AP) Ten emerging writers, from an author of speculative fiction, to a poet rooted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to an Indian-origin creative writing writer, have received USD 50,000 grants from the Whiting Foundation.

Since 1985, the foundation has had a mission to nurture “new creations” by supporting poets, playwrights and authors of fiction and nonfiction. Past winners have included Tony Kushner, Andre Aciman and Tracy K Smith.

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This week, the foundation announced its class of 2025. Elwin Cofman writes speculative fiction that Whiting judges say offers “illuminating sites of bawdy humour and horror,” while Karisma Price crafts post-Katrina poems that are “songs, howls, portraits, critiques.”

Judges praised the essays of Aisha Sabatini Sloan for their “startling connections between the personal and the collective.”

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The other winners were dramatist Liza Birkenmeier, fiction writers Samuel Klaw le, Shubha Sunder and Claire Luchette, graphic fiction writer Emil Ferris, poet Annie Wenstrup and nonfiction writer Sofi Thanhauser.

According to her own website, Shubha Sunder lives in Boston and teaches creative writing at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

“These writers demonstrate astounding range; each has invented the tools they needed to carve out their narratives and worlds,” Courtney Hodell, Whiting's director of literary programmes, said in a statement. “Taken as a whole, their work shows a sharply honed sensitivity to our history, both individual and collective, and a passionate curiosity as to where a deeper understanding of that history can take us.” (AP)

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