Yale University announced today that Chicago playwright Ike Holter (HIT THE WALL, EXIT STRATEGY, THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE BLOCK) is one of eight recipients of the Windham-Campbell Prizes for “literary achievement or promise.”

The Windham-Campbell Prizes were founded in 2013 by novelist Donald Windham in memory of his late partner, Sandy M. Campbell, to call attention to literary achievement and alleviate financial constraints that get in the way of writing.

“I work constantly and it’s exhausting; the idea that I’ve been given this gift to help me financially — and allow me to focus more artistically — is incredible and humbling, and even though I work with words I don’t know how to use them right now,” Holter said. “I’m incredibly grateful.”

The other 2017 recipients are: André Alexis (Canada/Trinidad and Tobago, fiction), Erna Brodber (Jamaica, fiction), Maya Jasanoff (United States, nonfiction), Ashleigh Young (New Zealand, nonfiction), Ali Cobby Eckermann (Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal/Australia, poetry), Carolyn Forché (United States, poetry), and Marina Carr (Ireland, drama). This is the first year that prizes have been awarded in poetry.

Prize recipients are nominated confidentially and judged anonymously. The call that recipients receive from program director Michael Kelleher is the first time that they learn of their consideration. The awards will be conferred in September at an international literary festival at Yale.