Yale University has announced the recipients of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, a literary accolade awarded to unsuspecting writers for their work in fiction, poetry, or drama. The winners in the drama category were Exit Strategy playwright Ike Holter and Marina Carr (The Mai).

Each playwright will receive $165,000, to be presented in September at Yale’s literary festival. In the other categories, this year’s Windham-Campbell Prize recipients are André Alexis and Erna Brodber in fiction, Maya Jasanoff and Ashleigh Young in nonfiction, and Ali Cobby Eckermann and Carolyn Forché in poetry.

Chicago playwright Holter, whose plays Hit the Wall and Exit Strategy have transferred Off-Broadway, was featured in last year’s Playbill Pride: Who’s Next? Read his profile here.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes were established in 2013 with a gift from the late Donald Windham in memory of his partner of 40 years, Sandy M. Campbell. Prize recipients are nominated confidentially and judged anonymously, which means that the call they receive from program director Michael Kelleher is the first time that they have learned of their consideration. English-language writers from anywhere in the world are eligible.

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