The Rona Jaffe Foundation has announced six winners of its annual Writing Awards. The literary awards, which are only given to women who are in the early stages of their writing careers, come with a $30,000 cash prize. The six winners will be honored at a ceremony in New York City on September 15.
Three of the six winners are African Americans.
Jamey Hatley is completing work on her first novel entitled The Dream-Singers. She has recently returned to her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, to care for her elderly parents. The award will allow her to write full-time to complete her novel. Hatley is a graduate of the University of Tennessee. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Memphis and a master of fine arts degree from Louisiana State University.
Ladee Hubbard is being honored for her fiction writing. She is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey. She holds master of fine arts degrees from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Airea D. Matthews is the author of the poetry collection simulacra, scheduled for publication next year by Yale University Press. She is the assistant director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Matthews is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master of public administration degree and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Michigan.
