“A poem is an action of the mind captured on a page. It is a movement of yourself through a thought, through an activity of thinking, so by the time you get to the end you’re different than you were at the beginning.”
—Anne Carson, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“I am actually in community with others on this vast shore of poetry. A place that is not landlocked inside the logic of language, but in continual movement along the rivers of feeling.”
—Layli Long Soldier, 2026 MacArthur Fellow
“Fiction tells a truth that history cannot. I lean into fictive truths.”
—Maaza Mengiste, 2026 MacArthur Fellow
“Having the chance to try and build another world and to occupy it, even if only for a little while, that’s a gift.”
—Bryan Washington, 2026 MacArthur Fellow