Roger Rosenblatt Is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow

On April 5, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation approved the awarding of Guggenheim Fellowships to a diverse group of 171 individuals in 48 different fields. Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2,500 applicants, these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.

“Like Emerson, I believe that fullness in life comes from following our calling,” said Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation and 1985 Fellow in Poetry. “The new class of Fellows has followed their calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding. We’re lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.”

Among the 2023 Guggenheim Fellows in the general nonfiction category is writer Roger Rosenblatt, who, until his retirement last August, was a fixture at Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus where he served as Distinguished Professor of English and Writing. Rosenblatt was instrumental in the creation of the MFA in writing program at the campus in the 1990s when it was still part of Long Island University.

Throughout his long career, Rosenblatt worked as a columnist, journalist, editor and author writing for newspapers (Washington Post), magazines (Time), television (MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour) as well as books, including “Making Toast,” a memoir about the sudden loss of his daughter, Amy, a pediatrician who died of an asymptomatic heart condition, in 2007 at age 38. His 21st book, “Cataract Blues” was published last fall. Previous awards for his writing work included the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize, a Peabody Award, an Emmy and two George Polk Awards. He was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, lived in Quogue for 24 years. With his retirement, they left the East End and now reside in Manhattan.

Created and initially funded in 1925 by Senator Simon and Olga Guggenheim in memory of their son John Simon Guggenheim, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has sought since its inception to “further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.”

Since its establishment, the Foundation has granted nearly $400 million in Fellowships to over 18,000 individuals, among whom are more than 125 Nobel laureates, members of all the national academies, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Award, Bancroft Prize, National Book Award, and other internationally recognized honors. The great range of fields of study is a unique characteristic of the Fellowship program. To see the full list of new Fellows, visit gf.org.