The lineup of programming has been revealed for the annual Windham-Campbell Prizes festival, including a keynote address from writer and translator Lydia Davis.
The festival will run September 17-20 at various locations across Yale University's Campus, celebrating the eight writers who were awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize worth $175,000 in April. The 2024 recipients across four categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, include the previously announced Kathryn Scanlan, Deirdre Madden, Christina Sharpe, Hanif Abdurraqib, Christopher Chen, Sonya Kelly, m. nourbeSe philip, and Jen Hadfield. Each will take part in a series of lectures, screenings, and performances at the fall festival.
READ: Christopher Chen and Sonya Kelly Among 8 Winners of 2024 Windham-Campbell Prizes
A September 17 Welcome Party will kick off the festival, followed by a ceremony and lecture by Maurie D. McInnis September 18. Lydia Davis' lecture, entitled Why I Write, will also be presented September 18.
Festival programming for September 19 includes a reading and performance of m. nourbeSe philip's Song!; a discussion focused on siblings in art and life between Deirdre Madden and Julia Rooney; an exploration of the art of fiction with Kathryn Scanlan and Elliott Holt; a writing workshop with Jen Hadfield; a conversation on Black performance with Hanif Abdurraqib, Christina Sharpe, and Daphne Brooks; a discussion of the poet's memoir with Jen Hadfield and Danielle Chapman; and staged readings of Christopher Chen and Sonya Kelly's works.
The festival will close September 20 with Sharpe and Nana Adusei-Poku's discussion of Sharpe's book Ordinary Notes; an examination of art with Scanlan and Karin Roffman; a discussion focused on the art of fiction with Madden and Anthony Domestico; a conversation on writing for stage and screen with Chen, Kelly, and Marc Robinson; a second workshop with Hadfield; a discussion titled On Basketball and Ascension with Abdurraqib and James Jones; and a (sub)aquatic conversation with philip and Jonathan Howard. The day will culminate in The Windham-Campbell Prize Recipient Readings, where all 2024 recipients will be invited to the Yale University Art Gallery stage for a short reading.
"Each fall, we are immensely grateful and proud to come together at Yale University to celebrate the wealth of talent across the recipients of the Windham-Campbell Prizes," Michael Kelleher, director of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, said in a statement. "The brilliance of the 2024 recipients is staggering, and we are delighted to connect these eight writers with audiences across the campus, to share experiences, insights and readings.”
Visit WindhamCampbell.org for more information.
