September 12, 2023

Press Release: Mizna Journal Awarded Prestigious Whiting Literary Prize

by Lamia Abukhadra | in Literary

Mizna has been named as a recipient of the prestigious Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. Founded in 2018, the prize’s purpose is to recognize excellence and to empower outstanding nonprofit publications to develop and implement ideas that will have a transformative impact and help sustain their works as champions of writers. As part of The Whiting Foundation’s new triennial model, Mizna will receive support in the form of $20,000 in grants for 2023, and matching grant support of the same amount in 2024 and 2025 to encourage our ongoing individual giving efforts.

The judges’ citation for the prize states: “Mizna is an absolute gem of a journal: tightly edited, gorgeously curated, and visually striking. Care and craft float off its pages of beautifully laid-out poetry and lovingly printed images. Mizna is both a grassroots community organization and an esteemed international artistic platform, furthering important intergenerational dialogue within the Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) diaspora and showcasing thrilling new literature.” 

In addition to financial support, Mizna will participate in development workshops with the Whiting Foundation, alongside the rest of the 2023 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize cohort, which includes Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, n+1, Orion, Oxford American, and The Paris Review. Past winners of the prize have also included friends of Mizna, such as former partner The Margins with the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. The prize has acknowledged both print and digital literary journals of various sizes, geographic locations, and organizational histories. Read more about the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize cohorts here. 

Support from the Whiting Foundation funds ongoing initiatives, including our forthcoming Cinema Issue guest-edited by Palestinian filmmaker and writer Saeed Taji Farouky, the literary festival Mizna + RAWIFest, which will take place as a hybrid event in Minneapolis this October, and recent staff expansions such as the hiring of Deputy Director Ellina Kevorkian and Executive Editor George Abraham. Approaching our twenty-fifth year anniversary, we are honored to be recognized for our caring curation of intergenerational SWANA literary conversations, and for our innovative print practices which we hope to continue developing. Our most recent issues of Mizna include Myth and Memory; the Black SWANA Issue, guest-edited by Safia Elhillo; the Experimental Issue, guest-edited by Tarik Dobbs; our Etel Adnan Tribute issue, and more.

Audiences can stay up to date with Mizna news and support us by subscribing to our journal, donating to support our ongoing programs, and following us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.