Award/Prize Winners

Below is a list of extraordinary SVWC alumni who have received literary accolades over the years. Click HERE for a full list of our past presenters.

The Man Booker Prize winners:

Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally, Ian McEwan, Michael Ondaatje, Barry Unsworth

Pulitzer Prize winners:

Liaquat Ahamed, Rick Atkinson, Dave Barry, A. Scott Berg, Robert A. Caro, Michael Chabon, Anthony Doerr, Richard Ford, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Annette Gordon-Reed, David Halberstam, Oscar Hijuelos, Haynes Johnson, David Kennedy, William Kennedy, Tracy Kidder, Ted Kooser, Philip Levine, Tyler Marshall, Frank McCourt, David McCullough, W. S. Merwin, Jack Miles, Gretchen Morgenson, Joe Morgenstern, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Paul Muldoon, Caryle Murphy, Sharon Olds, Samantha Power, Anna Quindlen, Kay Ryan, Stacy Schiff, Carol Shields, Jane Smiley, Mark Stevens, William Styron, Annalyn Swan, Natasha Trethewey, Colson Whitehead, Isabel Wilkerson, Roger Wilkins, Edward O. Wilson, James Wright, Lawrence Wright

National Humanities Medal recipients:

Richard Brookhiser, Robert A. Caro, E. L. Doctorow, Vartan Gregorian, James McBride, Kay Ryan, Isabel Wilkerson, Abraham Verghese

National Book Critics Circle Award winners:

Robert A. Caro, Ted Conover, E. L. Doctorow, Michael Dorris, Sheri Fink, Edward Hirsch, Philip Gourevitch, Paul Hendrickson, William Kennedy, Jonathan Lethem, Philip Levine, Frank McCourt, Ian McEwan, Sharon Olds, Samantha Power, Carol Shields, Jane Smiley, Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan, Lawrence Weschler, Isabel Wilkerson, Lawrence Wright

National Book Award winners:

A. Scott Berg, Robert A. Caro, E. L. Doctorow, Timothy Egan, James Fallows, Annette Gordon-Reed, Tracy Kidder, Jane Kramer, Philip Levine, Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, Peter Matthiessen, James McBride, David McCullough, Colum McCann, George Packer, W. S. Merwin, Robert Stone, William Styron, Colson Whitehead

 RascalsIn 2002, Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy spoke at SVWC about his novel ROSCOE,  a book whose cover featured six members of Albany’s political machine. Well, sometimes SVWC writers can’t resist a good spoof. So fellow speakers David Halberstam, Frank McCourt, Dave Barry, Roger Wilkins and David McCullough linked arms in the style of Albany’s notorious politicians and dubbed themselves RASCALS.