Yale Establishes The Donald Windham - Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes

Posted on June 29, 2011

Yale University President Richard C. Levin has announced the establishment of The Donald Windham - Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes. The prizes, which will be administered by Yale, are funded by a significant bequest from American writer Donald Windham, who died on May 31, 2010 at the age of 89.

The prize program will award seven to nine $150,000 prizes annually, in fiction and non-fiction categories. Yale says Windham wanted to ensure that the prizes would be large enough to enable each recipient to spend a full year writing, unencumbered by financial concerns. Yale Alumni Magazine says the prizes will first be awarded in late 2012 or early 2013.

Windham spent most of his adult life in New York. His close friends included famous writers, including Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. Windham collaborated with Tennessee Williams on the play "You Touched Me," which was based on a D.H. Lawrence short story.

Windham's memoirs included Emblems of Conduct (1964), Tennessee Williams' Letters to Donald Windham, 1940-1965 (1977) and Lost Friendships (1987). Some of his novels included The Dog Star, The Hero Continues and Tanaquil. The New York Times has an obit about Windham here.