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For the latest news about the Foundation and the activities of the Fellows: |
News & Events
Supporters of the FoundationThanks to the continued generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation, some Fellows with no academic or institutional affiliation receive supplemental funding as part of their Guggenheim Fellowship to help cover the costs of their research or artistic endeavors, and their living expenses. |
Guggenheim Fellowship Awards in the United States and Canada, 2009President Edward Hirsch announced today that the Guggenheim Foundation has awarded 180 Fellowships in its 2009 United States and Canada competition. View the list of 2009 Fellows in the United States and Canada |
Latin American and Caribbean Guggenheim Fellowship Awards, 2009The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded thirty-three Fellowships to artists, scholars, and scientists from Latin America and the Caribbean, according to Edward Hirsch, Foundation president. The successful Fellows were chosen from over 500 applicants. This year’s new Fellows are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. View the list of 2009 Latin American and Caribbean Guggenheim Fellowship Awards |
American Academy of Arts & Sciences announces its 2009 Fellows
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Nobel Prizes Awarded to Two Guggenheim FellowsThe roll of Nobel Prize-winning Guggenheim Fellows increased to 102 with the announcements on October 7 and October 12 of this year’s awards in chemistry and economics. |
American Academy in Berlin Prizewinners, 2009When the American Academy in Berlin announced the winners of its Berlin prizes on September 14, four Guggenheim Fellows were among the recipients: |
Barlow Endowment for Music CompositionThis month the recipients of General Commissions in the twenty-fifth annual Barlow Endowment for Music Composition competition were announced. Of the five commission winners, four are Guggenheim Fellows: Brian Current (2005), Sebastian Currier (1992), Pierre Jalbert (1994), and Yu-Hui Chang (2009). For more information on the Barlow Endowment and these winners, follow this link: |
Rebecca Goldstein, Fellow in Fiction, 200636 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, Ms. Goldstein’s latest book, has just been published by Pantheon, to rave reviews. Follow the link for more information. |
Fen Montaigne, Fellow in Science Writing, 2006In the December 21 and 28, 2009, double issue of The New Yorker, Fen Montaigne discusses the effects of global warming on the Adélie penguins of the Antarctic Peninsula. His article, “The Last Penguin,” is supplemented by an audio slideshow and podcast on the magazine’s website. Mr. Montaigne’s article is an excerpt from his Guggenheim Fellowship project, a book about the warming of the Antarctic, which will be published by Henry Holt later this year. |
Mary Anne Weaver, Fellow in General Nonfiction, 2004In January 2010 Farrar, Straus & Giroux will be issuing Pakistan: Deep Inside the World's Most Frightening State, a revised edition of Mary Anne Weaver’s highly praised 2003 study of that troubled country and its relations with the United States. As a foreign correspondent for such publications as The New Yorker, Washington Post, and The Times of London, Ms. Weaver has been observing firsthand and reporting on the cultures and politics of the Middle East for years. |
Monica Green, Fellow in Medieval History, 2003The History of Science Society awarded its 2009 Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize to Monica Green, a professor of history at Arizona State University, for her Making Women's Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology (Oxford UP, 2008). The book, with research supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, takes a threadbare romantic story about the rise of modern medicine and replaces it with a complex, carefully documented, and compelling historical study. Ms. Green is not denying the “masculinization” of women's medicine, but has rewritten the “before” and “after” pictures, the chronology, and the factors at work. The emphasis on literacy, rather than institutions such as the university or licensing per se made it possible to distinguish gender from other exclusionary principles. The selection committee for this prize was impressed by the expertise, erudition, and analytical power of the author. Accessibly written, the book is a major contribution to the historical study of gender and medical science and practice. |
Paul Desenne, Fellow in Music Composition, 2009Two of Paul Desenne’s compositions are featured on La Revoltosa (Clarinet Classics), a new CD by clarinetist Jorge Montilla; in fact, the title track is one of Mr. Desenne’s pieces. Read more→ |
Harriet Ritvo, Fellow in English Literature, 1989The University of Chicago Press has just published The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism, Harriet Ritvo’s third monograph. In this work, Ms. Ritvo offers a timely history of what has become the “green movement,” tracing its origins to the 1870s and the Lake District of England. |
Harry Berger Jr., Fellow in English Literature, 1959Fordham University Press has just published A Touch More Rare: Harry Berger, Jr. and the Art of Interpretation, by Scott Rappaport. Edited by Nina Levine and David Lee Miller, the volume's nineteen essays honor Mr. Berger's very influential contributions to literary and cultural criticism. |
Jeannie Suk, Fellow in Law, 2009Yale University Press has just released Jeannie Suk’s latest treatise: At Home in the Law. In it Ms. Suk gives a highly readable analysis of the unpredicted inroads the law has made into our domestic life as feminists sought to ensure the safety and equality of women in the home, becoming so paternalistic that even over the objections of the victim arrests for suspected domestic violence are mandatory and orders of protection can be put in place. |
Robert Edelman, Fellow in Russian History, 2006In Spartak Moscow (Cornell UP), Robert Edelman brings to bear his expertise in both Russian history and sports history to draw an intriguing picture of the political significance of soccer in the USSR. Subtitled A History of the People’s Team in the Workers’ State, the book details how the dissent quashed in daily life found expression on the pitch and in the stands, as people vociferously and ardently supported the Spartak Moscow team in its quest to best the KGB-sponsored Dinamo club. Mr. Edelman’s Guggenheim Fellowship supported his work on this book. |
John Irving, Fellow in Fiction, 1976Last Night in Twisted River, Mr. Irving’s latest novel, has just been published by Random House. Mr. Irving won the National Book Award in 1980 for The World According to Garp, and an Oscar in 2000 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. He discusses his latest work at length on his website. |
Tracy Daugherty, Biography, 2006When the 23rd Annual Oregon Book Awards were announced on October 26, Tracy Daugherty was once again among the winners. Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme (St. Martin’s Press, 2009), the project for which Mr. Daugherty received his Guggenheim Fellowship, garnered the Oregon Book Awards program’s Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction. This is the fourth time he has won an Oregon Book Award, but the first time in the nonfiction category. Follow the link for more information. |
Susan Middleton, Fellow in Science Writing, 2009A champion of biodiversity preservation, Susan Middleton celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in her photographs for Evidence of Evolution, to be issued by Abrams Books in October. Her photographs of exquisite specimens from the collection of the California Academy of Sciences, where she is a research associate, complement and enrich the text by Mary Ellen Hannibal. Ms. Middleton's work was supported in part by her Guggenheim Fellowship. To learn more about this book and Ms. Middleton, follow these links: |
Judith H. Dobrzynski: "A Gallery of Guggenheims"Judith Dobrzynski, a consultant to the Leon Levy Foundation, generously featured a number of 2009 Guggenheim Fellows in fine arts in two of her recent realcleararts blogs on artsjournal.com. Her blogs provide tantalizing images of their works and in many cases links to their individual websites. To read Ms. Dobrzynski's blogs and view her interesting sampling of Fellows' artworks, follow these links: Judith H. Dobrzynski: "A Gallery of Guggenheims" Part I Judith H. Dobrzynski: "A Gallery of Guggenheims" Part II |
2009 Rome Prize WinnersWhen the American Academy in Rome announced the winners of its 113th annual competition on April 16, three Guggenheim Fellows were among those named. Don Byron (Music Composition, 2007) received the Samuel Barber Rome Prize to create a chamber opera based on Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), the bestselling novel and the screen adaptation of the same name. The Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize went to Abigail Child (Film, 1995), who intends to use the prize to create The Pursuit, a film that envisions the home movies Percy and Mary Shelley might have made as they captured scenes in their lives. Stephen Westfall (Fine Arts, 2007) will use his Jules Guerin/John Armstrong Chaloner Rome Prize to support his work on a project entitled New Paintings in a New Old City. |
2009 Pulitzers AnnouncedOn April 20, the winners of the Pulitzer Prize were announced. Four Guggenheim Fellows were among them: Annette Gordon-Reed (United States History, 2009) received the prize for History for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton & Company); William S. Merwin (Poetry, 1973, 83) received the prize for Poetry for The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press); Lynn Nottage (Drama, 2005) received the prize in Drama for Ruined; and Steve Reich (Music Composition, 1978) received the prize for Music for Double Sextet (Boosey & Hawkes). Follow this link to the Pulitzer Prize website for more information |
National Book Critics' Circle AwardsTwo Guggenheim Fellows were among those honored this year by the National Book Critics’ Circle. In an unprecedented decision, two poetry prizes were awarded, one of which was given to August Kleinzahler (Poetry, 1989) for Sleeping It Off in Rapid City (Farrar, Strauss). Seth Lerer (Medieval Literature, 1993) garnered the NBCC award for criticism for Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter (University of Chicago Press). Follow this link for more information about the National Book Critics' Circle Announcement |
Mary Karr, Fellow in Poetry, 2004Lit, the third installment in Mary Karr’s series of memoirs, was released November 3 by Harper Collins. An accomplished writer and Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University, Ms. Karr has garnered Pushcart Prizes for both her poetry and essays, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Bunting Fellowship. |
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Fellow in Fine Arts Research, 1998Jeffrey Chipps Smith, the Kay Fortson Chair in European Art at the University of Texas, has been awarded the Anna-Maria Kellen Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin. He will be a resident Fellow in Berlin during the first five months of 2010. |
David L. Dilcher, Fellow in Botany, 1972, 1987The world’s foremost authority on the evolution of flowering plants, David L. Dilcher received an honorary doctorate from the University of Minnesota on September 26. |
David M. Lee, Fellow in Physics, 1966, 1974Texas A & M has announced that Nobel Prize winner David M. Lee has joined its department of physics, and will be spending six months each year in the department’s condensed matter program. Follow the link to read the notice on the Texas A & M website. |
Max Bañados, Fellow in Physical Sciences, 2009Even the Large Hadron Collider is limited in the amount of energy it can generate for scientists' researches into the most fundamental particles in the universe, but if Max Bañados and his collaborators, Stephen West of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Joseph Silk of the University of Oxford, are right, black holes may succeed where man fails. Jessica Griggs discusses their findings, which were just published in Physical Review Letters, in an article in the September 9 issue of New Scientist, entitled "Black Holes are the Ultimate Particle Smashers." Follow this link to view the Guggenheim profile for Max Bañados. |
Brian Ulrich, Fellow in Photography, 2008Janet Babin interviewed Brian Ulrich on the NPR program The Story. Follow this link to hear the interview which includes a discussion of Brian's work, including his 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. |
American Chemical Society's Inaugural Class of Elected Fellows
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Bernard Wasserstein, Fellow in Intellectual and Cultural History, 2007Mr. Wasserstein was chosen as the 2009 Leeser Rosenthal/Juda Palache Lecturer. His remarks, delivered on March 17, were published as Isaiah Berlin, Isaac Deutscher and Arthur Koestler: Their Jewish Wars, the second issue in the Menasseh ben Israel Instituut Studies series. These lectures are sponsored by the University Library of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Stichting Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, and the Stichting Vrienden van het Juda Palache Instituut. |
2009 Jazz Awards from the Jazz Journalists AssociationSix Guggenheim Fellows in Music Composition were among the winners of the 13th Annual JJA Jazz Awards, announced June 16, 2009: |
Don Weber, Fellow in Photography, 2007On October 7, 2009, Donald Weber was awarded the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography for 2009 by the Canada Council for the Arts. Follow this link for more information. View Mr. Weber's Guggenheim profile for more information on his work. |
Alexander Rehding, Fellow in Music Research, 2009Alexander Rehding was recently promoted to Fanny Peabody Professor of Music at Harvard University. Follow the link to view his Guggenheim Profile. |
Andrea Juan, 2005 Fellow in Visual Arts, and Erika Blumenfeld, 2008 Fellow in Installation ArtA new book of color photographs and essays entitled, Arte da Antártida (Art from Antarctica), published by Aeroplano and organized by the Goethe-Institute, showcases recent art created in the remote continent of Antarctica by artists from around the globe, including Andrea Juan and Erika Blumenfeld. |
Vartan Gregorian, Fellow in Russian History, 1971Vartan Gregorian, former head of the New York Public Library and currently President of the Carnegie Corporation in New York, has been appointed to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. |
William Brumfield, Fellow in Russian History, 2000William C. Brumfield’s latest additions to the “Discovering Russia Series” have just been published. In Kolomna: Architectural Heritage in Photographs and Suzdal: Architectural Heritage in Photographs Mr. Brumfield once again offers the reader his insights into the unique and beautiful architecture of Russia, illustrated with his own stunning photography. Tri Kvadrata Publishers of Moscow, in conjunction with the Kennan Institute, have published all eleven volumes in this series.Tri Kvadrata Publishers also announced the publication of Kirillov Ferapontovo, which discusses the architecture and history of two monasteries in the Vologda region of Russia: the Saint Kirill Belozerskii Dormition Monastery and the Saint Ferapont Nativity of the Virgin Monastery. The publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the Vologda Perspectives Foundation. William Brumfield’s support for his work in the Russian north has been provided by the office of the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University. View an image of Kolomna: Architectural Heritage in Photographs He also contributed the entry on Russian architecture and nineteen other articles to the two-volume Oxford Companion to Architecture, which has just been published by Oxford University Press. |
Martin Sherwin, Fellow in Science Writing, 1985Martin Sherwin, University Professor of History at George Mason University, has just been appointed to a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship for 2009-10. He is one of only twenty-four people so honored this year. |
Adeeb Khalid, Fellow in Near Eastern Studies and Russian History, 2005Carleton College has named Adeeb Khalid the Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies and History, an endowed chair position. |
John Kelly, Fellow in Drama and Performance Art, 1989Paved Paradise Redux, John Kelly's "cabaret tribute" to Joni Mitchell, premiered to rave reviews at the Abrons Art Center on June 18 and will continue its limited run through June 27. |
Athens Biennale, 2009The Athens Biennale 2009, entitled "Heaven," will open on June 15 and run through October. The "multi-faceted contemporary art event," as its organizers describe it, will include the work of seven Guggenheim Fellows: Bruce Baillie (1968), Zoe Beloff (2003), Kalup Linzy (2007), Jennifer Nelson (2003), Carolee Schneemann (1993), Robert Smithson (1973 [deceased]), and Christian Tomaszewski (2008). For more information about this art festival, follow this link. |
C. D. Wright, 1987 Fellow in Poetry, and A. F. Moritz, 1990 Fellow in PoetryEach year since 2000, the Griffin Poetry Prize, Canada's most sought-after poetry award, has been given to one Canadian poet and one poet from another country. This year, the international winner is C. D. Wright, who was recognized for her work Rising, Falling, Hovering. Canadian A. F. Moritz, who teaches at the University of Toronto, was honored for his collection The Sentinel. Saskia Hamilton, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, was among this year's judges. For more information on Ms. Wright, Mr. Moritz, and the Griffin Poetry Prize, follow this link. |
Alessandra Sanguinetti, Fellow in Photography, 2000The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has awarded photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti its Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography for 2009. This Fellowship will help support Ms. Sanguinetti's project entitled "The Life That Came." For more information, follow this link. |
Elizabeth Spencer, Fellow in Fiction, 1953Supported by the Southern Documentary Fund, filmmaker Kevin McCarthy is currently working on a documentary about the life of Elizabeth Spencer, the award-winning author and short story writer whose work exploring race relations in the South, a taboo topic in the 1930s, not only earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship but disinheritance by her father. To learn more about Ms. Spencer and Mr. McCarthy's profile of her, entitled "Elizabeth Spencer: Landscapes of the Heart," follow the link. |
Donal Fox, Fellow in Music Composition, 1997Donal Fox, who received his Fellowship in music composition, has been named a Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT for the 2009-10 academic year. |
Trevor H. Levere, Fellow in the History of Science and Technology, 1983Trevor H. Levere is this year's winner of the Sidney M. Edelstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry. The award, which is supported by the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (HIST) and the Chemical Heritage Foundation of Philadelphia will be presented to Mr. Levere this fall. To learn more, follow this link. |
New Publication by Richard Conniff, Fellow in Science Writing, 2007Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals by Richard Conniff has just been published by W.W. Norton. Mr. Conniff's Fellowship helped to support his research for and writing of this book. |
Aleksandar Hemon, Fellow in Fiction, 2003Love and Obstacles (Picador, 2009) is Bosnian-born Aleksandar Hemon’s third collection of short stories. To learn more about this work and its author, follow these links:
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Robin Hemley, Fellow in Nonfiction, 2008As a result of a column Mr. Hemley wrote for McSweeney's internet literary magazine, the Philippine government reversed its policy of taxing imported books, a practice that was in violation of a 1952 international treaty. To read his column and learn more about the grass-roots movement it started, follow these links:
Visit the website for The University of Iowa Follow this link to view an image of Robin Hemley's new book, DO-OVER!, from Little Brown. |
2009 Franklin AwardsThe Benjamin Franklin Institute has announced the winners of its 2009 Franklin Awards. The medals, which have been awarded annually since 1833, are among science’s highest honors and often presage future Nobel Prize winners. Of the six medal winners this year, two are Guggenheim Fellows: Stephen J. Benkovic and Lotfi A. Zadeh. |
Guggenheim Fellows - MacArthur Foundation 2009 Fellowship recipientsThe John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2009 Fellowship recipients on September 22. Among the twenty-four people awarded the so-called “genius” grants were five Guggenheim Fellows: Rackstraw Downes, Fellow in Fine Arts, 1998, Deborah Eisenberg, Fellow in Fiction, 1987, L. Mahadevan, Fellow in Applied Mathematics, 2006, Heather McHugh, Fellow in Poetry, 1989, and Richard Prum, Fellow in Organizmic Biology and Ecology, 2007. More information about these extraordinarily talented individuals is available in their Guggenheim profiles.
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We note the passing of the following Fellows:R. Fernando Alegría, Latin American Literature, 1946 |
Guggenheim Foundation "Firsts" |
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On May 28, 1925, the first class of Guggenheim Fellows was appointed. Culled from a field of only seventy-four applicants, the fifteen 1925 Fellows included composer Aaron Copland. Somewhat ahead of its time in recognizing the accomplishments of women, the Foundation also appointed Violet Barbour, a professor of history at Vassar College. The next year the field of applicants grew to nearly 900; of these thirty-nine received Fellowships, and five Fellows from the inaugural class received second Fellowships. |