21Q: Writers sought for rich Saroyan Prize

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21Q

Daily posts from Bee writers on movies, theater, media, fashion, music and pop culture.

October 29, 2009

Writers sought for rich Saroyan Prize

New or emerging writers are invited to submit work for the fourth William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.

A $5,000 award will be given for both newly published fiction (such as novels, short story collections and drama) and newly published non-fiction (memoirs, portraits and excursions into neighborhood and community, in the Saroyan tradition.)

The competition's launch was announced this week by Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation.

Deadline for entries is Jan. 31, 2010. Official forms and rules can be found at www.saroyanprize.stanford.edu

Previous winners of the Saroyan Prize are Jonathan Safran Foer for his novel "Everything is Illuminated," George Hagen for his novel "The Laments," Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman for their non-fiction work "The King of California," Nicole Krauss for her novel "The History of Love" and Kiyo Sato for the non-fiction "Dandelion Through the Crack."

The Fresno-born Saroyan wrote the 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Time of Your Life," several short story collections, including "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," and such novels as "The Human Comedy." He won an Academy Award in 1943 for his screen adaptation of "The Human Comedy."

He founded the William Saroyan Foundation in 1966. Its board of trustees offered his entire literary estate to Stanford University in 1990.

Saroyan died in Fresno in 1981.

-- Dixie Reid

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