Jemisin Wins Genius Grant
N.K. Jemisin is one of 21 MacArthur Foundation Fellows selected for 2020. Each “genius grant” recipient receives a no-strings-attached “stipend of $625,000… paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.”
Jemisin is broadening the spectrum of participants in speculative fiction’s creation and surrounding fandom through her published works as well as her world-building workshops, frequent interviews, and active presence on social media. While engaging readers with grippingly paced narratives, Jemisin demonstrates how the speculative mode enables us to contemplate the ecological crises and social inequalities of our contemporary moment and to consider how societies formed along fault lines might build themselves anew.
Fellows are chosen by “a constantly changing pool of invited external nominators chosen from as broad a range of fields and areas of interest as possible” and a selection committee. Final decisions are made by the president and board of directors. “Nominators, evaluators, and selectors all serve anonymously and their correspondence is kept confidential.”
Previous winners of genre interest include writers Octavia E. Butler, Junot Díaz, Virginia Hamilton, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, Karen Russell, George Saunders, Jesmyn Ward, and author/artist David Macaulay.
For more, see the MacArthur Foundation site.
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