George Garrett Award

Contemporary literature and AWP have benefited from the efforts of many teachers, writers, editors, and administrators who have done their utmost to help the next generation of writers find their way as artists and as literary professionals. In bestowing the annual George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature, AWP recognizes a few of those individuals who have made notable donations of care, time, labor, and money to support writers and their literary accomplishments.

Jerod Santek

Jerod Santek was awarded the 2024 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature.

Jerod Santek was the founding director of Write On, Door County and currently serves as its artistic director, overseeing the residency program as well as conferences, festivals, classes, and presentations. He serves on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and on the boards of several local organizations. From 2009 to 2019, he served on the board of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), representing Writers’ Conferences and Centers. He has published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in a number of print and online literary journals and magazines, including Ploughshares, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Blithe House Quarterly.

Letters of nomination are accepted each year between September 1 and October 31 and should be submitted via AWP’s Submittable portal.

To nominate a candidate for the George Garrett Award, please consult our award guidelines.

The award is named for George Garrett (1929-2008), who made exceptional contributions to his fellow writers as a teacher, mentor, editor, friend, board member, and good spirit. Garrett served for many years as the editor of Intro, an annual anthology of work by emerging writers; he served as one of the founding members of the AWP Board of Directors; he taught creative writing and literature for more than forty years; and he authored more than thirty books. As a writer, teacher, mentor, editor, or inspiration, Garrett helped many young writers who are now major contributors to contemporary letters. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium, in addition to travel, accommodations, and registration to attend AWP's annual conference, where the award is publicly announced and conferred.