The Joyce Horton Johnson Fiction Award, the Marianne Russo Award, and the Scotti Merrill Memorial Award honor emerging writers of exceptional merit. Each provides full tuition to our January Seminar and Writers’ Workshop Program, round-trip airfare, seven nights’ lodging, support for living expenses while in Key West, and the opportunity to appear on stage during the Seminar.
In addition to these awards, we provide limited financial assistance, primarily in the form of fee reductions, to teachers, librarians, writers, and students who would otherwise not be able to attend the Seminar or Writers’ Workshop Program. We may also provide discounted lodging options to a small number of applicants.
The Russo, Merrill, and Johnson awards are the legacies of the remarkable individuals for whom they are named; and a testament to the generosity of the patrons whose endowments will support them for the foreseeable future.
Joyce Horton Johnson is a writer and regular Seminar attendee, who felt moved to enable new writers to benefit from the Seminar and Writers’ Workshop Program. She and her husband, the sculptor Seward Johnson, winter in Key West and are generous patrons of the arts. As founder of the Dogwood Foundation, Scotti Merrill first convinced its trustees to support the Seminar many years ago. Together with Dogwood, her daughter Holly Merrill endowed this award as Scotti’s lasting legacy to arts and education. Marianne Russo was a teacher, writer, and longtime friend of the Seminar. Her devoted friend Peyton Evans, who endowed this prize in partnership with the Rodel Foundation, remarks: “It is most appropriate that this will be Marianne’s permanent legacy, perpetuating her love of writing and the deep connections she made with people.”
Financial assistance to teachers, librarians, writers, and students who would not otherwise be able to attend is possible in large part thanks to generous support from Judy Blume’s KIDS Fund.
In five years, we have provided support to more than 220 individuals with nearly $200,000 in fee waivers and lodging and travel assistance.
Read about our 2012 winners on Littoral. The application for our 2013 program will be available in the summer of 2012.
