Gene Jarrett, dean of the faculty at Princeton University and the William S. Tod Professor of English, has been selected to receive the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin for his biography, “Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird.”
The prize is administered by the Iowa Writers’ Workshop on behalf of the estate of Truman Capote and is the largest annual cash prize for English-language literary criticism, according to the organization.
Jarrett said receiving the award is meaningful for him because it shines a light on the positive impact of literature, the humanities and higher education.
“When you celebrate literary criticism, you celebrate the humanities,” he said. “The humanities imbue us with a deeper understanding of what it means to be human in this world.”
Read the full story on the University homepage.
Read a Faculty Author Q&A with Gene Jarrett on the Humanities Council’s Faculty Bookshelf.
