Tony Tulathimutte, the dark wizard behind 2025’s seismic Rejection, has won a new (and massive!) literary prize.
As the inaugural recipient of the Jack Galef Literary Arts Award, Tulathimutte will receive $150,000. The award is designated for graduates of Iowa’s prestigious MFA program. The alumnus, who is likely behind your favorite cringes of the past year, is currently teaching in the program as a visiting faculty member.
The Jack Galef Literary Arts Award—named for the poet and ’67 Iowa grad, Jack Galef—will be presented every two years going forward. It aims to support talented writers both promising and established. Recipients will be selected by a committee of workshop faculty.
Tulathimutte’s previous honors include a Whiting Award, the National Book Award long list, and the eyeballs of some very coveted tastemakers. Current Iowa workshop director Lan Samantha Chang said she is “delighted to award the inaugural prize to an iconic writer of pathbreaking fiction.”
That pathbreaker is grateful. “One of the things everybody knows but almost everybody underrates is just how much of an impediment to writing the struggle for a livelihood is,” Tulathimutte said in a statement.
Looks like no more rejection for this guy. (I’ll see myself out.) Congratulations, Tony!