Toni Jensen — the author of “Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land” and director of the master’s degree program in creative writing at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville — has been named the recipient of the 2024 Porter Fund Literary Prize.
The Porter Prize is presented annually to an Arkansas writer with a substantial and impressive body of work that merits enhanced recognition.
Past winners of the Porter Prize include Mara Leveritt, Morris Arnold, Kevin Brockmeier and Jo McDougall, the former Poet Laureate of Arkansas.
Jensen will receive a $5,000 prize and will be honored at an award ceremony on Oct. 10.
The Porter Prize was founded in 1984 by novelist Jack Butler and novelist and lawyer Phil McMath to honor Dr. Ben Kimpel. Butler and McMath were students of Kimpel, noted professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
At Kimpel’s request, the prize is named in honor of Kimpel’s mother, Gladys Crane Kimpel Porter. The annual prize has been handed out to 38 poets, novelists, nonfiction writers and playwrights.
Fayetteville novelist Padma Viswanathan, the 2017 recipient of the Porter Prize, notified Jensen of her award.
“I’ve lived in Arkansas for a decade now, and my ties to and love for the place and its people strengthen each year,” said Jensen in a statement issued with the announcement. “I was both surprised and moved by the Porter Prize committee’s decision. Arkansans have such a long, rich history of storytelling, and I’m proud to be considered an Arkansas writer and to be honored in this way.”
Her book, “Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land,” was a Dayton Peace Prize finalist and a New York Times Editors’ Choice book.
Jensen’s essays have appeared in journals and magazines such as Orion, Catapult and Ecotone. She also is the author of the story collection “From the Hilltop.”
She has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jensen directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She also teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is Métis.
Those interested in attending the banquet honoring Jensen may contact Phil McMath at phillip@mcmathlaw.com.
