What do W.H.Auden, Aaron Copeland, Langston Hughes, Vladimir Nabokov, Wendy Wasserstein, Derek Wallcott and Eudora Welty (ok…and Henry Kissinger, but we’re going for "upbeat" and "celebratory" here) have in common with author and White Crane friend Fenton Johnson?

They’re all Guggenheim Fellows. (portrait to the right: John Simon Guggenheim)

This morning it was announced that Fenton Johnson is a 2007 recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on a new work of nonfiction entitled Desire in Solitude.

Johnson is currently an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona, and readers of White Crane will remember a wonderful conversation with Fenton in Issue #62. Fenton Johnson is the author of five other books including two time Lammy awards for Geography of the Heart: A Memoir (1996) and Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey (2004). He has received numerous other literary awards and has also been a Wallace Stegner Fellow and a James Michener Fellow.

White Crane offers the warmest congratulations to Fenton Johnson. It is a richly deserved honor for a wonderful writer and a very nice man.