Windham Campbell Prize winners announced

One writer thought the e-mails from Michael Kelleher were a Nigerian scam. Another, on the telephone, asked Kelleher to keep talking for a while, as she couldn't find any words. Still another told Kelleher that his call was very welcome, as she had had to resort to Medicaid to pay for a recent surgery.

They were all responding to good news from Kelleher, the program director of the Windham Campbell Prize. They and five others are $150,000 richer as this year's winners of the prize, which is presented to English-language writers in drama, fiction, and nonfiction. The prize, established by the late author Donald Windham and named for him and his partner Sandy Campbell, is administered by Yale and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where President Peter Salovey ’86PhD announced the winners this morning.

This year's prize winners were selected by a jury from among 64 nominees from 16 countries. Writers must have at least one published book or one professionally produced play to their credit in order to be considered, but otherwise may be in any stage of their careers. The winners—who did not know before Tuesday that they had even been nominated for the prize—will all come to Yale in September to receive their prize and participate in a three-day literary festival.

This year's winners in drama are:

• Kia Corthron (United States)

• Sam Holcroft (United Kingdom)

• Noëlle Janaczewska (Australia)

In fiction:

• Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)

• Nadeem Aslam (Pakistan)

• Jim Crace (United Kingdom)

In nonfiction:

• Pankaj Mishra (India)

• John Vaillant (United States/Canada)

You can read more about the winners—and watch this morning's prize announcement—at the Windham Campbell home page.