April 2024

Jared Santek, Cynthia Sherman

Each year, AWP presents the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature to an individual who has made notable donations of care, time, labor, and money to support writers and their literary accomplishments. Below is a transcript of 2024 winner Jarod Santek’s speech, with an introduction from AWP executive director Cynthia Sherman. It has been edited for the format of this publication.

AWP Executive Director Cynthia Sherman

Good evening, 

Contemporary literature and AWP have benefited from the efforts of many teachers, writers, editors, and administrators who have done their utmost to help the next generation of writers find their way as artists and as literary professionals. In bestowing the annual George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature, AWP recognizes a few of those individuals who have made notable donations of care, time, labor, and money to support writers and their literary accomplishments.

The award is named for George Garrett (1929–2008), who made exceptional contributions to his fellow writers as a teacher, mentor, editor, friend, board member, and good spirit. Garrett served for many years as the editor of Intro, an annual anthology of work by emerging writers; he served as one of the founding members of the AWP Board of Directors; he taught creative writing and literature for more than forty years; and he authored more than thirty books. As a writer, teacher, mentor, editor, or inspiration, Garrett helped many young writers who are now major contributors to contemporary letters. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium, in addition to travel, accommodations, and registration to attend AWP’s annual conference, where the award is publicly announced and conferred.

It is my honor and privilege to announce the 2024 winner of the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature: Jerod Santek!

We received many nomination letters filled with admiration for the work you have done for many communities, your service as an AWP board member, and how you continue to adapt to meet current needs with incredible generosity. There is so much gratitude for the work you continue to do!

Congratulations, Jerod!

2024 Winner Jerod Santek

When I applied for the position of events coordinator at the Loft Literary Center back in 1994, I had no idea that this would evolve into a thirty-year career as a literary arts administrator. I’m not sure that I knew there was such a thing as a literary arts administrator career. One of the reasons I moved to Minneapolis the previous year was because of the Loft. As an MFA student at American University in Washington, DC, my cohorts always read announcements of awards and fellowships made by the Loft. How lucky, we thought, to be a writer in a community that supported writers financially! Soon, I was administering those very awards.

Supporting and encouraging writers at every stage of their career—from absolute beginner to those with several books to their name—became more important to me than my own writing. Over the years, I have been able to help hundreds of writers advance from emerging to established. That work has been a privilege and an honor. I feel blessed to have so many talented writers come through the programs I ran at the Loft and currently run at Write On, Door County.

I left the Loft in 2013 to create this new writing organization on Wisconsin’s northeast peninsula primarily because I wanted to start the type of writers’ residency program I believed needed to exist. A program with short-term residencies for those writers who can’t get away from their lives for months at a time. A program that welcomed writers who had to travel with children or other family members. The first year of the residency program, we welcomed a dozen writers. This year, we are providing seventy-five writers with the time and space to focus on their writing projects. 

This past fall, I met with the marketing staff of a nearby resort where we will hold a two-day conference this year. One woman recently moved to our rural community from Madison. She told me one of the reasons she decided to take the job and relocate to such a small town was because Write On existed. I can think of no better compliment and maybe one day she’ll be working with us.

Thank you to my husband, who has stood beside me every day of those thirty years; to my colleagues at both organizations and at WC&C; to the writers who have come through our programs; thank you to the nominators and the selection committee for this honor; and, finally, thank you to the AWP board and staff who work so hard every day to help all of us, writers and literary arts administrators alike.