Best-selling author selected for 2019 Whiting Award

Terese Mailhot. (Courtesy photo)
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Terese Mailhot, a visiting assistant professor of English at Purdue University and author of the New York Times best-seller “Heart Berries,” recently received a 2019 Whiting Award.

Mailhot, who was nominated in the field of nonfiction writing, is among a group of 10 fiction and nonfiction writers, poets and playwrights selected for the prestigious award. She will receive a monetary gift of $50,000 based on early-career achievement and the promise of superior literary work to come. The honor is awarded by the Whiting Foundation.

“I am pleased to see continued recognition for Terese Mailhot’s writing,” said David A. Reingold, the Justin S. Morrill Dean of Liberal Arts. “It is testimony to the excellent work being done in our Creative Writing Program.”

 “Heart Berries,” a memoir, is Mailhot’s debut novel. It follows her through her troubled upbringing on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in British Columbia and her struggles with mental health and identity. It was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2018 by Time.

Mailhot’s writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Los Angeles Times, Carve Magazine, The Offing, The Toast and Yellow Medicine Review. She has previously received the SWAIA Discovery Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, Writing by Writers Fellowship and the Elk Writer’s Workshop Fellowship.

The Whiting Awards recognize exceptional new writers. Previous winners have gone on to win numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Obie Award, and MacArthur, Guggenheim and Lannan fellowships. The nominators and judges all work anonymously, and winners are chosen by a small group of recognized writers, literary scholars and editors.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu