Two Awards in One Week for Author Elizabeth Kolbert

Larchmont Native Wins $50K From Lannan Foundation

by Judy Silberstein

(November 9, 2006) Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker writer, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change (among other titles), and graduate of Mamaroneck High School (class of 1979) is among the 8 authors sharing the literary fellowship award from the Lannan Foundation for 2006. Ms. Kolbert will receive $50,000. Ms. Kolbert relocated from Larchmont to Massachusetts in 2002 but returns often to visit family and present her work at the Larchmont Library. (See: Elizabeth Kolbert To Discuss "Field Notes from a Catastrophe")

This is the second Lannan Foundation award for a locally-connected author in the past two years. In 2005, Mamaroneck’s Lee Stringer was selected for a Lannan writing residency that sent him to Marfan, Texas to work on a memoir and a novel. (See: Mamk's Lee Stringer Gives "Internal View" of a Difficult Life.)

For the past 18 years, the Lannan Foundation has distributed over $11 million in awards to a total of 161 writers and poets “whose work is of exceptional quality,” according to the foundation’s website. The organization is a “family foundation dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity.” Candidates for the awards do not apply for the honor and are instead selected by a somewhat mysterious process that starts with anonymous nominations and concludes with approval by a board of directors.

“They just called her one morning on the phone,” reported Marlene Kolbert, the author’s mother and a Larchmont Village Trustee. “She had no idea she was under consideration.”

Elizabeth Kolbert was unavailable for comment herself because she was on her way to California where she was to receive a separate $20,000 Communication Award on November 9 from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine for her three-part series in the New Yorker on “The Climate of Man.” (See: National Academies Award.)

Front Page

Print This Page
Email this page