Will Arbery, Playwright of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Wins 2020 Whiting Award for Drama

Will Arbery, an emerging playwright who earned attention off-Broadway this season with the play Heroes of the Fourth Turning, has been named winner of the 2020 Whiting Award for Drama. Arbery, along with nine other writers across genres, will receive $50,000 each.

In addition to Heroes of the Fourth Turning, which made its world premiere at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in October 2019, Arbery's plays include Plano, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing and Wheelchair. He is currently the Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Playwrights Horizons, where he is also under commission. He received his MFA from Northwestern University and his BA from Kenyon College.

The Whiting Awards, established by the Whiting Foundation in 1985, remain one of the most esteemed prizes for emerging writers, based on the criteria of early-career achievement and the promise of superior literary work to come. A total of $8 million has been awarded to more than 300 fiction and nonfiction writers, poets and playwrights to date.

In addition to Arbery, 2020 Whiting Award winners include poetry honorees Aria Aber, Diannely Antigua, Jake Skeets and Genya Turovskaya; fiction winners Genevieve Sly Crane, Andrea Lawlor and Ling Ma; and nonfiction winners Jaquira Díaz and Jia Tolentino.

The 35th annual Whiting Awards ceremony has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Foundation will reschedule a celebration of the winners at a later time.