The E. M. Forster Award is a $20,000 award given annually to an Irish or British

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

to fund a period of travel in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The award, named after the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

E. M. Forster, is administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Academy members nominate authors and winners are selected by a rotating committee.

Past winners

Frank Tuohy John Francis ("Frank") Tuohy, (2 May 1925 – 11 April 1999) was an English writer and academic. Born in Uckfield, Sussex, he attended Stowe School and went on to read Moral Sciences and English at King's College, Cambridge. On completion of h ...

1972 *

Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and '' Je ...

1973 * Paul Bailey 1974 *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1975 *

Jon Stallworthy Jon Howie Stallworthy, (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) was a British literary critic and poet. He was Professor of English at the University of Oxford from 1992 to 2000, and Professor Emeritus in retirement. He was also a Fellow of Wolfso ...

1976 * David Cook 1977 * Bruce Chatwin 1979 *

F.T. Prince Frank Templeton Prince (13 September 1912 – 7 August 2003) was a British poet and academic, known generally for his best-known poem ''Soldiers Bathing'', written during the Second World War in 1942, which has been frequently included in antholog ...

1982 * Humphrey Carpenter 1984 *

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', '' England, England'', and ''Art ...

1986 *

Blake Morrison Philip Blake Morrison FRSL (born 8 October 1950) is an English poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs ''And When Did You Last See Your Fat ...

1988 *

A. N. Wilson Andrew Norman Wilson (born 27 October 1950)"A. N. Wilson"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''.

1989 *

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pol ...

1990 *

Alan Hollinghurst Alan James Hollinghurst (born 26 May 1954) is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. He won the 1989 Somerset Maugham Award, the 1994 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 2004 Booker Prize. Early life and education Ho ...

1991 *

Timothy Mo Timothy Peter Mo (born 30December 1950) is a British Asian novelist. Born to a British mother and a Hong Kong father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10, when he moved to Britain. Educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxfor ...

1992 * Sean O'Brien 1993 *

Janice Galloway Janice Galloway (born 1955 in Saltcoats, Scotland) is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories, prose-poetry, non-fiction and libretti. Biography She is the second daughter of James Galloway and Janet Clark McBride. Her parents separated whe ...

1994 *

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. ''The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlist ...

1995 * Jim Crace 1996 *

Glyn Maxwell Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist, and lecturer. Early life Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'' ...

1997 * Kate Atkinson 1998 *

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work ...

1999 * Carol Ann Duffy 2000 *

Marina Carr Marina Carr is an Irish playwright who has written almost thirty plays, including '' By the Bog of Cats'' (1998). Early life and education Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland, but spent the majority of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Of ...

2001 * Helen Simpson 2002 * Andrew O'Hagan 2003 *

Robin Robertson Robin Robertson (born in 1955) is a Scottish poet. Biography Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London. After working as an editor at Penguin Books and Secker and Wa ...

2004 *

Dennis O'Driscoll Dennis O'Driscoll (1 January 1954 – 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and ...

2005 * Geoff Dyer 2006 * Jez Butterworth 2007 * John Lanchester 2008 *

Paul Farley Paul Farley, FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster. Life and work Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poet ...

2009 *

Dan Rhodes Dan Rhodes (born 1972) is an English writer, possibly best known for the novel '' Timoleon Vieta Come Home'' (2003), a subversion of the popular ''Lassie Come Home'' movie. He is also the author of ''Anthropology'' (2000), a collection of 101 st ...

2010 * Rachel Seiffert 2011 * David Mitchell 2012 *

Adam Foulds Adam Samuel James Foulds FRSL ( ; born 8 October 1974) is a British novelist and poet. Biography Foulds was educated at Bancroft's School, read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford under Craig Raine, and graduated with an MA in creative w ...

2013 * Sarah Hall 2014 *

Adam Thirlwell Adam Thirlwell (born 22 August 1978) is a British novelist. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He has twice been named as one of ''Granta''s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2015 he received the E.M. Forster Award from the Am ...

2015 * Sinéad Morrissey 2016 * Robert MacFarlane 2017 * Jon McGregor 2018 * Sally Rooney 2019 *Stephen Sexton 2020

References

External links

Contact informationPast winners
American literary awards Awards of the American Academy of Arts and Letters {{lit-award-stub