Literary award judge William Woodward, Katherine Neville, and author Mary Lynn Kotz
KATHERINE NEVILLE’S
“News”letter Flash: Art & Literature
March 21, 2016
The Art & Literature Award
Over these past five years, while ramping up research for my new book about artists, I was also instrumental in ramping up the creation of a brand-new literary award: Art in Literature! The Art in Literature award is the first significant joint venture between two world-class institutions: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of Virginia.
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This is the first award of such ambitious sweep, honoring a book-length work on the visual arts, in categories including: poetry, journalism, fiction, history, biography, art history, young adult works, or museum catalogues. The purpose of this new award is to “raise the bar” on writing about art, by applauding luminous, jargon-free prose, and spotlighting fresh research along with imaginative approaches to talking about art in literature.
The foundation committee unanimously chose to name the award for our great friend and colleague, Mary Lynn Kotz, NY Times bestselling journalist, the last to interview Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiu, and author of the definitive illustrated biography of artist Robert Rauschenberg.
To-date, the Kotz Award has been given three times: the inaugural recipient was Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, for his non-fiction book about the creation of his museum, The Innocence of Objects; Poet Laureate Carolyn Kreiter Foronda for her book-length poem, The Embrace: Diego Rivera & Frieda Kahlo; and last year, Susan Vreeland for her novel about artists and the art world: Lisette’s List.
The prize is awarded each October at the Virginia Literary Awards ceremony in Richmond, Virginia, accompanied by a $2500 honorarium. For my fellow authors who have had a qualified book published by an American publisher in 2015, please visit the website to see if you would like to submit your book for this exciting new award!
Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk accepts inaugural Art in Literature Award from Mary Lynn Kotz & VMFA director Alex Nyerges
More information about the Virginia Literary Awards can be found on the websites of the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Please visit me on my website www.KatherineNeville.com
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