The Fifth Annual Benefit Gala will take place on Thursday, October 17 at the New York Public Library in New York City. This year we will honor Maya Angelou with the Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, Junot Diaz with the Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing, and Michael Hastings with the Norman Mailer Award for Emerging Journalist.
2013 Annual Benefit Gala
Thursday, October 17, 2013· 7:00 PM
New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue at E. 42nd Street
New York, New York
YALE UNIVERSITY STUDENT WINS NORMAN MAILER COLLEGE POETRY WRITING AWARD
Amelia Urry to be Honored at Fifth Annual Benefit Gala to Take Place October 17 at
The New York Public Library
NEW YORK, N.Y. (October 3, 2013)―The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony (www.nmcenter.org) president and co�founder, Lawrence Schiller, in a partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, today announced this year’s recipient of the National College Poetry Award is Amelia Urry of Yale University. Urry will be presented with her award and a check for $2,500 at the Center’s fifth annual benefit gala on Thursday, October 17, at The New York Public Library in New York City. Honorary Chair, Gay Talese, with Masters of Ceremonies, David Black and Dick Cavett, will host a lively evening of cocktails, dinner and an awards ceremony celebrating renowned and emerging writers alike. For further details on the Center and the gala, please visit www.nmcenter.org.
The annual gala attracts over 500 distinguished guests from the worlds of literature, culture, business and philanthropy, including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Booker Prize winners, and National Book Award winners, among them celebrated poet, memoirist, and novelist Dr. Maya Angelou, author Junot Díaz, and late journalist and former Norman Mailer Center graduate Michael Hastings.
Urry is a recent graduate of Yale University where she majored in English and completed a collection of poetry as her thesis project. Urry is currently working with Yale University Adjunct Professor Michael Frame to co-author a book on fractal geometry. She currently resides in Seattle, WA.
Over 1,000 high school students, plus two-year and four-year college students, submitted entries for the 2013 Norman Mailer National High School, Community College, and College Nonfiction Writing Awards, which will be presented at the gala in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, in addition to the National High School Teacher’s Award.
This year, Dr. Maya Angelou will be honored with the Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Dr. Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book was published to international acclaim and enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles. A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Junot Díaz will be honored with the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a The New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Diaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael Hastings will posthumously receive the Norman Mailer Award for Emerging Journalist. Hastings was an American journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone known for his uncompromising and aggressive reporting style. Hastings was one of the first graduates of The Norman Mailer Center. He received the George Polk Award for his candid Rolling Stone interview “The Runaway General,” with General Stanley McChrystal. The interview with then commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war eventually led to McChrystal being relieved of his command. Hastings is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, detailing the flaws of the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. He passed away in June 2013 at the young age of 33 and is survived by his wife Elise Jordan, who will be accepting the award on his behalf.
THE NORMAN MAILER CENTER AND WRITERS COLONY is an educational nonprofit dedicated to nurturing the values of Mailer’s work in future generations of writers. Through a diverse set of programming including creative writing workshops, the Mailer Fellowships, student and teacher writing awards, artist retreat programs, and initiatives for international outreach and exchange, the Center provides educational, monetary and professional support to early� and mid�career writers in all genres who relish dialogue and debate; are driven by an endless curiosity to make sense of the times in which they live; fully exercise their creativity; apply themselves to the craft of writing with the rigor of an athlete; and wish to reach a broad audience through their work. Through its programming, the Center aims to preserve the role of the engaged writer as not only a legitimate, but an indispensable voice in contemporary dialogue. Visit www.nmcenter.org for more information.
Fifth Avenue at E. 42nd Street
New York, New York
YALE UNIVERSITY STUDENT WINS NORMAN MAILER COLLEGE POETRY WRITING AWARD
Amelia Urry to be Honored at Fifth Annual Benefit Gala to Take Place October 17 at
The New York Public Library
NEW YORK, N.Y. (October 3, 2013)―The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony (www.nmcenter.org) president and co�founder, Lawrence Schiller, in a partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, today announced this year’s recipient of the National College Poetry Award is Amelia Urry of Yale University. Urry will be presented with her award and a check for $2,500 at the Center’s fifth annual benefit gala on Thursday, October 17, at The New York Public Library in New York City. Honorary Chair, Gay Talese, with Masters of Ceremonies, David Black and Dick Cavett, will host a lively evening of cocktails, dinner and an awards ceremony celebrating renowned and emerging writers alike. For further details on the Center and the gala, please visit www.nmcenter.org.
The annual gala attracts over 500 distinguished guests from the worlds of literature, culture, business and philanthropy, including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Booker Prize winners, and National Book Award winners, among them celebrated poet, memoirist, and novelist Dr. Maya Angelou, author Junot Díaz, and late journalist and former Norman Mailer Center graduate Michael Hastings.
Urry is a recent graduate of Yale University where she majored in English and completed a collection of poetry as her thesis project. Urry is currently working with Yale University Adjunct Professor Michael Frame to co-author a book on fractal geometry. She currently resides in Seattle, WA.
Over 1,000 high school students, plus two-year and four-year college students, submitted entries for the 2013 Norman Mailer National High School, Community College, and College Nonfiction Writing Awards, which will be presented at the gala in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, in addition to the National High School Teacher’s Award.
This year, Dr. Maya Angelou will be honored with the Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Dr. Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book was published to international acclaim and enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles. A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Junot Díaz will be honored with the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a The New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Diaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael Hastings will posthumously receive the Norman Mailer Award for Emerging Journalist. Hastings was an American journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone known for his uncompromising and aggressive reporting style. Hastings was one of the first graduates of The Norman Mailer Center. He received the George Polk Award for his candid Rolling Stone interview “The Runaway General,” with General Stanley McChrystal. The interview with then commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war eventually led to McChrystal being relieved of his command. Hastings is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, detailing the flaws of the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. He passed away in June 2013 at the young age of 33 and is survived by his wife Elise Jordan, who will be accepting the award on his behalf.
THE NORMAN MAILER CENTER AND WRITERS COLONY is an educational nonprofit dedicated to nurturing the values of Mailer’s work in future generations of writers. Through a diverse set of programming including creative writing workshops, the Mailer Fellowships, student and teacher writing awards, artist retreat programs, and initiatives for international outreach and exchange, the Center provides educational, monetary and professional support to early� and mid�career writers in all genres who relish dialogue and debate; are driven by an endless curiosity to make sense of the times in which they live; fully exercise their creativity; apply themselves to the craft of writing with the rigor of an athlete; and wish to reach a broad audience through their work. Through its programming, the Center aims to preserve the role of the engaged writer as not only a legitimate, but an indispensable voice in contemporary dialogue. Visit www.nmcenter.org for more information.
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