Dora Malech, a 2005 graduate from the Writers' Workshop is one of five recipients of this year's Ruth Lilly Fellowship. This prestigious fellowship was started in 1989 by Ruth Lilly to encourage the writing and studying of poetry. The fellowship has expanded greatly since its inception when a single student poet, nominated by a faculty member, received the award. In 2008, competition for the award was opened to all poets between the ages of 21 and 31 and the number of recipients expanded to 5 people.

Dora Malech was born in Maryland, graduated with a BA from Yale in 2003 before attending Iowa Writers' Workshop. In addition to the Ruth Lilly Fellowship, she has been the recipient of several other awards including, the Frederick M. Clapp Poetry Writing Fellowship from Yale, a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching-Writing Fellowship from the Writers’ Workshop, a Glenn Schaeffer Poetry Award and a Writer’s Fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbertide, Italy. This year she will be serving as a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence in Poetry for the MFA Creative Writing Program at Saint Mary’s College of California.

The Ruth Lilly Fellowship is presented by the Poetry Foundation and the editors of Poetry magazine select the winners. Click here for the full article detailing all of the winners of the Ruth Lily Fellowship award.