Annual Alice Hoffman Prize for fiction writers is announced

On February 1, 2011, Ploughshares, Emerson’s award-winning literary magazine, announced the establishment of the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction. The $1,000 prize comes as a gift from the internationally known author to encourage and support young writers. It will be awarded annually to a fiction writer whose work was published the previous year in Ploughshares.

Many of today’s most respected writers published their early work in the magazine, including writers as diverse as Tim O’Brien, Sue Miller, Robert Pinsky, and Jayne Anne Phillips.

Hoffman, who has been a board member for two years and was a guest editor for the magazine in 2004, will return once more to guest edit the Winter 2011 issue. The distinguished author hopes the prize will be inspiring to fiction writers. “Ploughshares is a wonderful vehicle for new writers, so I’m thrilled to be able to create an opportunity to bring attention to the remarkably talented writers featured in the magazine each year.”

This year, Ploughshares will celebrate its 40th anniversary. “As we enter a milestone year in our history, it’s a great honor for the magazine to receive this generous gift from one of the world’s most celebrated novelists,” said Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares and Distinguished Publisher-in-Residence at Emerson College Ladette Randolph.

The Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction will be selected by the editorial staff of Ploughshares and announced each spring, starting in 2012.