Nonfiction Writing Program alumni Marilyn Abildskov (NWP 1997) and Deborah Jackson Taffa (2013) were both among the prose writers selected to win a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature. 

Each NEA awardee receives $25,000, "giving recipients the time and space to create, revise, conduct research, and connect with readers," according to the NEA website. 

Taffa is the author of the forthcoming book Whiskey Tender, and will read at Prairie Lights Books as part of the NWP Alumni Reading Series on March 29, 2024.

Abildskov is the author of The Men in My Country and numerous essays and short stories.