Tarell Alvin McCraney Wins $150,000 From Yale University

It's been a good year for Tarell Alvin McCraney. The Miami playwright kicked off 2013 with his own punched-up, truncated version of Hamlet, which opened at GableStage in January to favorable reviews (including ours). Next, he's working with London's Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York Public Theatre to produce...

By Ciara LaVelle

March 5, 2013

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It's been a good year for Tarell Alvin McCraney.

The Miami playwright kicked off 2013 with his own punched-up, truncated version of Hamlet, which opened at GableStage in January to favorable reviews (including ours). Next, he's working with London's Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York Public Theatre to produce another major production at GableStage in 2014.

Now he's been rewarded for his work by Yale University, which has chosen McCraney to receive one of nine Windham-Campbell Prizes, which come with a monetary award of $150,000.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes recognize talent in fiction, nonfiction, and drama. McCraney was one of three playwrights selected for the honor, along with Naomi Wallace, a Kentucky playwright whose latest work is The Liquid Plain, and Stephen Adly Guirgis, author of The Motherfucker With the Hat, which enjoyed a successful run at GableStage in January 2012.

Named for Donald Windham and Sandy M. Campbell, who donated the money for the awards, the Windham-Campbell Prizes are new this year. The other winners include fiction writers Tom McCarthy, James Salter, and Zoë Wicomb and nonfiction winners Adina Hoffman, Jeremy Scahill, and Jonny Steinberg. The awards will be given out in September during a literary festival at Yale.

Follow Ciara LaVelle on Twitter @ciaralavelle.

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Ciara LaVelle is New Times' former arts and culture editor. She earned her BS in journalism at Boston University and moved to Florida in 2004. She joined New Times' staff in 2011.

Contact: Ciara LaVelle

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