Center For Fiction Names Nan Graham Winner Of The 2011 Maxwell E. Perkins Award

Press Release

June 9, 2011, New York, NY — The Center for Fiction in New York City is pleased to announce that Nan Graham, Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Scribner is the recipient of its 2011 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction.

 The Center for Fiction is dedicated to celebrating, supporting and furthering the creation and enjoyment of the art of fiction and is the only non-profit literary organization in the United States devoted entirely to this art form. The award will be presented to Ms. Graham (left) at the Center's December 6 Annual Benefit and Awards Dinner in New York City.

The Maxwell E. Perkins Award recognizes an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of his or her career has discovered, nurtured, and championed writers of fiction in the United States. It honors Maxwell E. Perkins, of Scribner, one of the most important and admired editors in American literary history. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and Ernest Hemingway are three of the many writers he supported over his long career.

During her 16-year tenure at Scribner, Ms. Graham has worked with such fiction writers as Don DeLillo, Stephen King, Annie Proulx, Amy Hempel, Ann Beattie, Kate Walbert, Kathy Reichs, Carol Edgarian, Rafael Yglesias, and Colm Tóibín, and has introduced new writers such as Monica Ali, Dana Spiotta, Anthony Doerr, Rachel Kushner, Belinda McKeon, and Miranda July. She edited the memoirs The Liars' Club by Mary Karr, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron and Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Other non-fiction includes Andrew Solomon's National Book Award winner, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression and Siddhartha Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize winner, The Emperor of All Maladies: a Biography of Cancer.

Announcing the 2011 winner, Peter Ginna, Chairman of the Center for Fiction, said: "It seems most appropriate, if not overdue, for the Maxwell Perkins Award to recognize an editor who has for sixteen years published some of America's most eloquent, most necessary writers under the imprint of Scribner—as did Max Perkins himself." In choosing Ms. Graham, the award selection committee noted "her unparalleled vision, her amazing editorial eye, and her fierce author advocacy."

The Center for Fiction presented the first Maxwell E. Perkins Award in 2005 to Nan A. Talese of Doubleday. In 2006, the recipient was Gary Fisketjon of Alfred A. Knopf, and in 2007 it was Harcourt editor, Drenka Willen. The 4th Maxwell E. Perkins Award was presented in 2008 to the President of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Jonathan Galassi, and the 2009 recipient was Gerald Howard, Vice President and Executive Director of Doubleday. Last year's recipient was Amanda Urban, Executive Vice President of ICM, the first literary agent to win the award.

The Center for Fiction, founded in 1820 as the Mercantile Library of New York, is dedicated to celebrating, supporting and furthering the creation and enjoyment of the art of fiction. The Center utilizes all its resources, including its renowned circulating collection and an array of innovative programming, to engage the reading public and build a larger audience for fiction. The Center serves as a vibrant meeting place where prominent and emerging writers come together with readers in conversation, and where writers can work, exchange ideas and share their gifts.

www.centerforfiction.org