The 2024 class of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellows includes more writers, artists, and storytellers than in years past, though the so-called genius grants list also includes multiple scientists.
The interdisciplinary awards announced Tuesday come with a $800,000 grant over five years that the 22 recipients—including fiction writer Ling Ma, poet and writer Juan Felipe Herrera, cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond, and visual artist Ebony G. Patterson—may use however they want.
Nominees are considered over the course of years, recommended by their peers, vetted by the foundation and reviewed by an independent advisory board, whose membership changes over time. While each class is never an immediate response to any particular moment, sometimes themes do emerge, said Marlies Carruth, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.
“We have to see at least the variety and the strength and the number of nominations in the literary arts space as a response to the zeitgeist, the desire to tell stories, and resurrect certain stories that have not been told,” said Carruth.
It is not possible to apply for the award, and the foundation asks recommenders and peers not to tell the person nominated that they are under consideration.
“Most of them understand the value of of the discretion, of the secrecy,” Carruth said, speaking of the nominators. The confidentiality also allows them to be very honest, she said.
Because of this secrecy, it can be hard for the foundation to actually reach the recipients.
