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For more than 50 years, the St. Louis Literary Award has honored many of the most important writers of our time and celebrated the contributions of literature in enriching our lives. The St. Louis Literary Award is among the oldest and most prestigious of literary prizes in the country.

From 1967 until 1981, the award was known as the Messing Award in honor of Roswell and Wilma Messing Jr., who provided the initial funding for the prize. The St. Louis Literary Award recognizes a living writer with a substantial body of work that has enriched our literary heritage by deepening our insight into the human condition and by expanding the scope of our compassion. It is presented annually by the Saint Louis University Libraries.

Members of the SLU community are encouraged to submit nominations for the 2026 award by Monday, June 3.

2025 Award Winner: Colson Whitehead

Saint Louis University will honor Colson Whitehead at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at Sheldon Concert Hall. Mr. Whitehead will also be featured on SLU鈥檚 campus at noon on April 10 for the annual author craft talk.

Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels 鈥淭he Intuitionist,鈥� 鈥淛ohn Henry Days,鈥� 鈥淎pex Hides the Hurt,鈥� 鈥淪ag Harbor,鈥� 鈥淭he Underground Railroad,鈥� 鈥淭he Nickel Boys,鈥� and 鈥淗arlem Shuffle,鈥� among others. He also penned a book of essays about New York City, 鈥淭he Colossus of New York.鈥� Whitehead graduated from Harvard College and worked as a reviewer of television, books and music at the Village Voice. In addition to the Pulitzer, 鈥淭he Underground Railroad,鈥� won the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. 鈥淭he Nickel Boys鈥� won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Whitehead has been a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway, PEN/Faulkner, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Whitehead was named the New York State Author in 2018 and awarded the Prize for American Fiction from the Library of Congress in 2020. Whitehead has taught at the University of Houston, Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University. He has also served as a writer-in-residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming. 

Recipients of the Saint Louis Literary Award

The list of awardees of this prize reflects numerous Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners and National Book Award recipients.