Claire Luchette, an assistant professor of English, received the Whiting Award for their novel, “Agatha of Little Neon.”

The Whiting Foundation recognizes 10 up-and-coming writers each year nominated by a pool of industry professionals invited by the organization, including writers, editors, booksellers and critics. The winners are selected by a special committee composed of “recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors appointed every year by the Foundation,” according to its website. All nominators and selectors remain anonymous to allow open discussion of the candidates.

“Winning this award is bewildering — the phone call came out of the blue, and at first I thought I was being scammed,” Luchette wrote in an email. “That the judges believe in my work is very moving: I’m deeply grateful and honored.”

“Agatha of Little Neon” centers on a group of nuns forced to move away after their parish closes. Luchette said the idea for the novel came about when they were having problems with their car.

“All my writing comes from small experiments, and this time, I asked: what if nuns had car trouble?,” they wrote. “I wrote from the perspective of a chorus of women religious, then kept asking new questions to fuel the writing.”

Luchette has previously been recognized for their work. In 2021, the National Book Foundation named them as a 5 Under 35 honoree, which recognizes new fiction writers “whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” Luchette’s work has appeared in literary journals and publications like The New York Times and Best American Short Stories, and they are a 2024-25 Radcliffe Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

A Brown University alum, Luchette later received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon. They mentioned Jori Celona, a fellow writer whom they met in graduate school, as a mentor. (2)

“They weren’t afraid to tell me when something I wrote was garbage — though they always put it more kindly and generously than that,” Luchette wrote. “Every time I sit down to write, I have them in mind as my smartest reader, one who laughs at what I laugh at and sees through my nonsense and phoned-in sentences.”

In the future, Luchette will release a second novel, “Swans,” and a collection of stories titled “Big Whoop.”

Nine other emerging writers were recognized by the Whiting Foundation for nonfiction, fiction, drama and poetry. Along with the prestige, each winner receives $50,000, which will “empower recipients to fulfill the promise of exceptional literary work to come.” The winners were announced last week at a ceremony featuring keynote speaker Ocean Vuong, a 2016 Whiting Award winner and a New York Times bestselling author.

“The Department is thrilled — but not surprised — to learn that Professor Luchette has received this prestigious award, on top of an already impressive list of accomplishments,” wrote Alexandra Moore, the chair of the English department. “Binghamton creative writing students already know Professor Luchette’s exquisite attention to craft, and we celebrate their ever widening recognition.”