L.A. author Kathryn Scanlan wins $175,000 literary prize: Baffling and wonderful

Eva Hartman April 2, 2024

Kathryn Scanlan’s knowledge that she would be a writer arose in the haze of childhood

, like the appreciation for animals that grounds so many of the L.A. author’s stories.

Her

most recent

success in literature, though, seems to have taken even her by surprise

:.

Scanlan

has been

awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize

,

a $175,000 grant for achievements in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award

, whose winners were announced Tuesday,

is one of the most generous in the literary world

; recipients have been given a total of $18 million or so since 2013

to aid their work unbounded by financial constraints.

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The prize, which is administered annually through Yale Universitys Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is bestowed completely anonymously. Writers cannot apply for the award

., R

ather, they are nominated and selected by secret juries.

This year’s winners also include

Deirdre Madden

for fiction,

Christina Sharpe

and

Hanif Abdurraqib

for nonfiction,

Christopher Chen

and

Sonya Kelly

for drama, and

M . N ourbeSe P hilip

and

Jen Hadfield

for poetry.

I’m never going to find out who nominated me for this. Or wow the names of any of the jury who selected me, Scanlan lamented.

It’s kind of baffling and wonderful and I’d like to thank everyone, but I don’t know who they are.

Raja Shehadeh, Yiyun Li and Maria Bamford among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists The committee that selected her said, “Scanlan fuses mundane experiences with the density of a redemptive vision, capturing the harrowing events of ordinary lives in raw, hard-hitting prose.”

Scanlan is the author of three

novels books

, in addition to a significant career writing for various literary magazines. Her most recent

boo

k

novel

, “Kick the Latch

,

” is a chronicle of a woman named Sonia

‘s and her

career in the horse

–

training industry

.

Scanlan became acquainted with

Sonia we never learn her last name

through her parents and their antique business in Iowa

, her home state

. They insisted the

women

meet, and by the end of that first conversation, I felt like I could write a book about her,

” Scanlan said.

Their initial conversation lasted four hours, and

Scanlan admitted she “r

eally didn’t end up asking hardly any questions at all. I was just listening.

The pair continued to

speak via phone

during the pandemic as Scanlan crafted a narrative

about

the intensity of life in the horse

–

racing industry

using

transcripts of their conversations. The book went on to win a Gordon Burns Award and was listed as a book of the year in the Daily Telegraph, New Statesman

,

New Yorker

and more. Why Don Winslow’s ‘City in Ruins’ will be his last novel

Kick

t

he Latch matches the style of her previous works, Aug 9-Fog and The Dominant Animal

,

,

with brief, sparsely detailed chapters that Leslie Jamison describes in the New Yorker as rosary beads of information rather

than a

traditional narrative arc. Scanlan took

15

years to derive “Aug 9-Fog” from

a86-year -old woman ‘s diary , kept by an 86-year-old woman, that

she discovered at an estate sale in Illinois, while “The Dominant Animal” is a collection of short stories meditating on the balance of power between humans and the natural world.

I am always trying to say as much as I can with as few words as possible, Scanlan explained, so it’s sort of like a game or a puzzle.

Sonias own punctuated storytelling lent itself to Scanlans writing style, and the author lauded how much she enjoyed working with original material that matched her strengths so well. The two continue to keep close contact as the book garners accolades.

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Scanlan’s current home in Los Angeles, far from the race tracks of Iowa, is part of what she credits with her success.

“I did find that I ended up writing a lot about the place where I grew up …

b

ut I think that distance gave me a perspective on the place where I am from that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t moved here.”

As for the Windham-Campbell Prize,

Scanlan

said,

“

I

t’s going to let me be able to just continue to write. And to write for as long as I can make the money last.”