Abraham Verghese has won the 2023 Writer in the World Prize.
The Sun Valley Writer’s Conference has announced the third annual winner of the Writer in the World Prize, a $20,000 award recognizing writers whose “life’s work embodies a rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it,” per the Conference.
Physician, author, and Stanford professor Abraham Verghese has taken the honor, which he can add to a 2016 National Humanities Medal. He is the author of 2009 bestselling novel Cutting for Stone, about British-Indian twins born in Ethiopia, and The Covenant of Water, about a family in India’s Kerala region doomed to drown once a generation, as well as the memoir My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story, about Verghese’s experiences working as a doctor in rural America.
In a statement to the press, Verghese noted his involvement with the conference: ““I came as a relatively young writer and was mentored by the greats who founded the Conference. I am conscious that I stand on the shoulders of those giants and have their example of generosity to hold up.”
The award will be presented to Verghese at the 2023 Sun Valley Writer’s Conference in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 22. Congratulations!
