Chautauqua Institution today proudly announced a cohort of distinguished guest judges for the 2026 Chautauqua Prize: Oliver de la Paz, Glory Edim, Jillian Hanesworth, and Kao Kalia Yang. The foursome will serve as an independent jury that determines this year’s Chautauqua Prize-winning book and finalist selections. 

Awarded annually since 2012, the Prize celebrates a book of fiction, literary/narrative nonfiction, or poetry that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts. Books published in 2025 were accepted as submissions for the 2026 Prize from September to December 2025. The 2026 Prize finalists and award-winning book will be selected by the independent jury from a longlist of 373 entries read and reviewed by 141 volunteer Chautauquans who are writers, publishers, educators, editors, librarians, and avid readers.   

A familiar face to Chautauqua, Oliver de la Paz joined the Chautauqua Writers’ Center faculty in 2021 and was a featured speaker of the 2023 Writers’ Festival. de la Paz is the author and editor of several books. His latest collection of poetry, The Diaspora Sonnets, was published by Liveright Press (2023). It was a winner of the 2023 New England Book Award and was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award. A founding member of Kundiman, he is the James N. and Sarah L. O’Reilly Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross. He also teaches in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU and is the former Poet Laureate of Worcester, Massachusetts. 

Glory Edim is new to Chautauqua but well-known to the literary world as a memoirist and the creator of the Well-Read Black Girl book club and podcast. Edim is a literary tastemaker, entrepreneur, and advocate for diverse voices in literature. In 2015, she founded Well-Read Black Girl (WRBG), an online platform and book club dedicated to celebrating the works of Black women authors and creating a supportive online community for readers. Under Edim’s leadership, WRBG has grown into a nonprofit organization, hosting events, book festivals, and author conversations that highlight the richness and diversity of Black literature. Her efforts have earned her accolades such as the 2017 Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and the Madam C.J. Walker Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. As an author herself, Edim has contributed to the literary landscape with her bestselling memoir, Gather Me: In Praise of the Books That Saved Me, and anthologies Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, and On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library. 

Jillian Hanesworth is a familiar name to Chautauqua, having been featured as a speaker in the Interfaith Lecture Series in 2023, a faculty member and panelist for the 2024 Kwame Alexander Writers’ Lab, and a speaker during the 2025 Forum on Democracy. Hanesworth is the founding Poet Laureate Emerita of nearby Buffalo. Born on the East Side, she began writing at age 7, composing songs for her mother’s church performances. Through her art, she challenges, validates, and educates her community. Hanesworth founded Buffalo Books, a nationally recognized literacy access program that has allowed for the placement of 30-plus library boxes on the East Side of Buffalo and provided over 1,000 free, and brand new culturally relevant books to residents of Buffalo. In 2024, Hanesworth was the recipient of a national Sports Emmy in the Dick Schaap Outstanding Writing category for her “Still Here” collaboration with the NFL Network, poetically documenting the pain, trauma and resilience of the City of Buffalo. Currently, she sits on the board of directors for Compass House and IIUTU Media in addition to traveling internationally writing, performing, teaching, and speaking truth to power, all in the name of love for her people. 

Finally, Chautauquans will know Kao Kalia Yang as a Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) author and a Chautauqua Prize finalist in 2017. Yang is an award-winning Hmong American teacher, speaker, and writer. Her work crosses genres and audiences and centers Hmong children and families who live in our world, who dream, hurt, and hope in it. Yang’s writing and speaking are concerned with the plight of refugees from around our world, ideas of belonging, and the depths of the human experience. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carleton College, was the 2024 Star Tribune Artist of the Year, and is a Guggenheim Fellow. Kao Kalia Yang lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her family. 

de la Paz, Edim, Hanesworth, and Yang will be featured within the 2026 Chautauqua Masters Series programming during this year’s Summer Assembly. Patrons can look for more information on these workshops, roundtables, and readings in the Special Studies catalog this spring, and online at classes.chq.org. 

The Chautauqua Prize, which will be awarded for the 15th time this year, has been inspired since its inception by the late literary and entertainment industry attorney Michael I. Rudell, and his wife, Alice. Previous winners include The Sojourn, by Andrew Krivák (2012); Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, by Timothy Egan (2013); My Foreign Cities, by Elizabeth Scarboro (2014); Redeployment, by Phil Klay (2015); Off the Radar, by Cyrus Copeland (2016); The Fortunes, by Peter Ho Davies (2017); The Fact of a Body, by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich (2018); All the Names They Used for God, by Anjali Sachdeva (2019); Out of Darkness, Shining Light, by Petina Gappah (2020); Having and Being Had, by Eula Biss (2021); All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, by Rebecca Donner (2022); Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2023); The Reformatory: A Novel by Tananarive Due (2024); and Whale Fall: A Novel by Elizabeth O’Connor (2025).  

Winners of The Chautauqua Prize are noteworthy for their capacity to open inquiry and create an inviting space for conversation among many different kinds of readers, making the books an ideal vehicle to engage in Chautauqua Institution’s historic tradition of reading and discussion in community. The Prize further distinguishes itself in the landscape of American literary awards through a cross-genre nomination process — works of fiction, narrative nonfiction, and full-length poetry can all be considered — and because the physical prize awarded to each year’s winning author is a specially commissioned original work of art, based on themes and narratives from the winning book. Chautauqua’s other annual literary award, the Chautauqua Janus Prize, celebrates experimental writers who have not yet published a book. Taken together, these prizes ensure that both tradition and innovation live at the heart of a Chautauqua reader’s life of learning.  

ABOUT THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE   

Awarded annually since 2012, The Chautauqua Prize draws upon Chautauqua Institution’s considerable literary legacy to celebrate a book that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and to honor the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts. The author of the winning book will receive $7,500 and will participate in a Prize ceremony and reading on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution during the 2026 Summer Assembly Season. For more information, visit prize.chq.org.    

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY ARTS   

With a history steeped in the literary arts, Chautauqua Institution is the home of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, founded in 1878, which honors at least nine outstanding books of fiction, nonfiction, essays and poetry with community discussions and author presentations every summer. Further literary arts programs at Chautauqua include the summer-long workshops, craft lectures and readings from some of the very best author-educators in North America at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center. Chautauqua Literary Arts is led by the Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts, an endowed chair established in memory of a beloved Chautauquan who, among other things, inspired Chautauqua’s first literary award, The Chautauqua Prize.   

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION   

Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer — and year-round through the CHQ Assembly online platforms — with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue.