Paul Engle Prize Award Ceremony

Honoring Christopher Merrill

Christopher Merrill has been named the 15th recipient of the Paul Engle Prize, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization. The ceremony is free and open to the public.

Following the presentation of the prize Merrill will be interviewed by Loren Glass the M. F. Carpenter Professor and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Iowa. A reception will follow the cereomony which is free and open to the public. 

The prize, established in 2011, honors an individual who, like Paul Engle, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts.

The prize includes a $25,000 award and a one-of-a-kind work of art. Merrill, who retired at the end of 2025 after 25 years as the director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, will receive the award at a ceremony at 2 p.m. on Oct. 18, at the Coralville Public Library. Loren Glass, chair of the UI English Department, will interview Merrill as part of the program. The event, which kicks off the 2026 Iowa City Book Festival, is free and open to the public.

Merrill said he was honored to receive the prize.

“Paul Engle set a dynamic example of literary engagement, as a poet and writer, teacher and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and International Writing Program (IWP). And his creative thinking has been for me a spur to try new things during my tenure in Iowa, and so it is a thrill to receive an award in his name.”

Merrill was born in Northampton, Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey. He holds two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middlebury College, and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Washington.

He has published more than 10 collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets, and On the Road to Lviv; many edited volumes and translations; and seven books of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain, and The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War. His writings have been translated into nearly 40 languages; his journalism appears widely; his honors include a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, numerous translation awards, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial and Ingram Merrill Foundations.

As director of IWP, Merrill conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than 50 countries. He served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 2011-2018, and in April 2012 President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Humanities.

The Paul Engle Prize is made possible through the generous support of the City of Coralville, which is home to 11 permanent sculptures with artistic and literary ties to Iowa. The sculptures all have ties to work found in The Iowa Writers’ Library, housed in the Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel, which features about 800 books written by former students, graduates and faculty of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

The Engle Prize itself is a one-of-a-kind work of art. Each piece is crafted to reflect the work and impact of the recipient, while tying it to the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.

Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), though best remembered as the long-time director of the Writers’ Workshop and co-founder with his wife, Hualing Nieh Engle, of the UI’s International Writing Program, also was a well-regarded poet, playwright, essayist, editor and critic. In 2000, then-Gov. Tom Vilsack declared Engle’s birthday, Oct. 12, as “Paul Engle Day” in Iowa.

Previous winners of the prize are James Alan McPherson, Kwame Dawes, Luis Alberto Urrea, Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Dina Nayeri, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Dr. Eve L. Ewing, Rebecca Solnit, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Camille Dungy, and Cole Swensen. Visit www.iowacityofliterature.org/paul-engle-day for more information about the prize and past winners.

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