Hopwood Award

The Hopwood Awards are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.

Under the terms of the will of Avery Hopwood, a prominent American dramatist and member of the Class of 1905 of The University of Michigan, one-fifth of Mr. Hopwood's estate was given to the Regents of the University for the encouragement of creative work in writing. The first awards were made in 1931, and today the Hopwood Program offers approximately $120,000 in prizes every year to aspiring writers at the University of Michigan. According to Nicholas Delbanco, UM English Professor and Director of the Hopwood Awards Program, "This is the oldest and best known series of writing prizes in the country and it is a very good indicator of future success."

Previous Hopwood winners include Brett Ellen Block, Max Apple, Lorna Beers, Sven Birkerts, John Malcolm Brinnin, John Ciardi, Tom Clark, Lyn Coffin, Cid Corman, Christopher Paul Curtis, Mary Gaitskill, Robert Hayden, Garrett Hongo, Lawrence Joseph, Jane Kenyon, Laura Kasischke, Elizabeth Kostova, Arthur Miller, Howard Moss, Davi Napoleon, Frank O'Hara, Marge Piercy, William Craig Rice, Ari Roth, Davy Rothbart, Betty Smith, Ron Sproat, Keith Waldrop, Rosmarie Waldrop, Edmund White, Nancy Willard, Beth Tanenhaus Winsten, and Maritta Wolff.