Whidbey Island Poet Wins Whiting Writers' Award

Roger Fanning, a Whidbey Island poet who published his first collection of poetry last spring, has been named one of 10 recipients of the 1992 Whiting Writers' Awards.

The awards, which include a $30,000 prize for each writer, were made by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. The writers were recognized for "their writing achievements as well as their promise for producing outstanding future works."

Fanning was honored for his poetry collection, "The Island Itself," published by Viking. In a review last March, Anthony Flinn, The Seattle Times' poetry critic, praised Fanning as "a romantic in the tradition of John Keats and Fred Flintstone. He believes that the world around us - a place of plumbing fixtures, cheeseburgers and acne - is too drab to contain or fulfill our aspirations.

"To escape this cramped little world," Flinn wrote, "(Fanning) offers teasing visions of a grander, better self."

Flinn said Fanning's poems showed "a cheerful, ironic understanding of why the imagination is as necessary to life as food and sex. His focus is adolescence - its ridiculous expectations and hemorrhaging disappointments - but (the) poems are droll and intelligent enough to charm anyone who's made it at least part way to adulthood."

Fanning and the other winners were chosen by an anonymous panel of writers, editors and educators who were chosen by the foundation, which established the awards eight years ago.

Besides Fanning, the winners included Eva Hoffman, author of the memoir "Lost in Translation"; novelist R.S. Jones; short-story writer J.S. Marcus; and poet-essayist Katha Pollitt.

Other winners were: short-story writer Damien Wilkins; playwright Jose Rivera; poet Jane Mead; playwright Suzan Lori-Parks; and playwright/actor Keith Reddin.