Whiting Foundation
American private foundation
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The Whiting Foundation (legally the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation) is an American private foundation based in New York City. Founded in 1973 through a bequest from Flora Ettlinger Whiting, it makes grants in literature and the humanities. The foundation is known for administering the Whiting Awards, annual grants to emerging writers.[1][2][3]
| |
| Founded | 1973 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Flora Ettlinger Whiting |
| Type | Private foundation |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, U.S. |
Key people | Constantia Constantinou (executive director) |
| Website | www |
History
Mrs. Flora Whiting died in 1971, and a contemporaneous report in The New York Times identified the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation as one of the principal beneficiaries of her estate.[4] The Bookseller reported that the foundation has funded humanities work since 1973.[1] According to the foundation, its first program was the Whiting Dissertation Fellowship, which ran from 1973 to 2015.[5][6] In 1985, it established the Whiting Awards.[3]
Programs
The foundation's literary programs include the Whiting Awards, which are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.[3][7]
The Whiting Nonfiction Grant for Works-in-Progress began in 2016.[8][1] In 2022, The Bookseller reported that the program expanded from eight United States writers to ten writers and opened to applicants from Britain and Canada with qualifying publishing contracts.[1] The program is now titled the Whiting Nonfiction Grant for Works-in-Progress.[9]
The foundation launched the Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes in 2017.[10] Publishers Weekly reported that the program was revised in 2023, when the foundation moved to awarding cohorts of magazines on a three-year cycle and changed eligibility rules and grant amounts.[11]
Beyond its literary programs, the foundation's grantmaking has included dissertation and teaching fellowships, public engagement programs for humanities scholars, and more recent grants in high-school humanities and cultural heritage preservation.[6][12][13]