This week saw the announcement of Windham-Campbell prize, an award of $150,000 to writers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction and drama.

In his introduction to Donald Windham’s short story collection ‘The Warm Country’, E.M. Forster writes, “To my mind, the most important thing about Donald Windham is that he believes in warmth. He knows that human beings are not statues but contain flesh and blood and a heart.”

The 2016 Prizewinners:

• C. E. Morgan (United States) - Fiction


• Tessa Hadley (United Kingdom) - Fiction


• Stanley Crouch (United States) - Nonfiction


• Jerry Pinto by Chirodeep Chaudhuri (India) - Fiction


• Hannah Moscovitch (Canada) - Drama


• Hilton Als (United States) - Nonfiction


• Abbie Spallen (Ireland) - Drama


• Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (United States) - Drama


• Helen Garner (Australia) - Nonfiction

"The Windham-Campbell Prizes at Yale University today announced this year’s nine prize recipients, who are honored for their literary achievements or their potential."

So how can I enter?

You can't.

Why not?

Lucky winners of the prizes are caught unaware when an email arrives in their inbox announcing they have won a rather substantial prize. Several writers tell tales of almost deleting the notifications as suspected junk mail.

Why are you telling me this?

Because next awards will be introducing a poetry category. So if you receive an unsolicited email advising you that your poems have won you the sum of a hundred grand in US dollars, it's probably time to check with your publisher and make sure you're not being wound up; then crack open a few bottles of bubbly, or absinthe. Congratulations!

Isn't it part of a poet's job description to be penniless?

Obviously if you find yourself unable to write poetry if your insides aren't gnawing at your outsides, then that's fine; it should not be compulsory however.

Quotes from
Windham-Campbell website