Black Clock editor Steve Erickson is one of seven writers to receive an Academy Award in Literature from The American Academy Of Arts And Letters. Additionally, Steve has been named a finalist for an American Society Of Magazine Editors National Magazine Award in Criticism.
In 1941 The American Academy Of Arts And Letters established awards to encourage creative work in the American arts. Now $7500 each, Academy Awards are given annually to artists, writers, composers, and architects. The Awards in Literature are given in recognition of “exceptional accomplishment in any genre.” Past recipients of this honor include David Mamet, William S. Burroughs, David Markson, Rikki Ducornet, Lorrie Moore, and Black Clock contributors William T. Vollmann and Don DeLillo.
The awards will be presented in New York in May at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial. The Academy’s 250 members nominate candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects winners. This year’s committee members were Philip Levine, Romulus Linney, Rosanna Warren, and Joy Williams.
Co-sponsored by the American Society Of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School In Journalism, the National Magazine Award is generally recognized to be the highest (or Pulitzer-like) honor accorded to writers in the magazine industry. Steve has been nominated for three reviews which originally appeared in the Los Angeles Magazine:
“The Next Frontier” [essay on the revived science fiction television serial Battlestar Galactica] (January 2009)
“War Games” [essay on Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop] (July 2009)
“No Ordinary Fad” [essay on the enduring popularity of The Beatles in the digital age] (September 2009)
Past recipients of the Award in Criticism include James Wood, Adam Gopnik, James Wolcott, Anthony Lane, and Black Clock contributor Tom Carson. Winners of the “Ellie” (named for the the Alexander Calder stabile “Elephant” awarded each winner) will be feted at a gala to be held at Alice Tully Hall in New York on April 22nd.
For a complete listing of this year’s nominee’s, please visit the Magazine Publishers Of America‘s website.
Congratulations Steve.
