MacDowell, the nation’s oldest artist residency program, is pleased to announce the election of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. A world-renowned writer and MacDowell Fellow, Diaz’s tenure will draw upon a wealth of experience and achievement in both academia and the publishing world, alongside a keen awareness of how impactful MacDowell’s residency program can be for artists. In his role as Board Chair, Diaz will continue to advance MacDowell’s mission to provide transformative support to artists of all backgrounds and disciplines. He will succeed Nell Painter, who has been Chair since 2020.
Renowned for writings that display a sophistication of structure and clarity of style, Diaz is the author of four books translated into thirty-seven languages: Trust (2022), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and is one of The New York Times’ 100 Best Books of the Century; In the Distance (2017), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Borges, Between History and Eternity (2012); and Ply, his latest novel, to be released in the fall of 2026. His stories and essays have been featured in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Atlantic, McSweeney’s and The Paris Review, among several other publications.
Diaz is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, given to ‘a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.’ He has also received the Kirkus Award, The Whiting Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, among other honors. He holds a Ph.D. from NYU and serves on the Board of Yaddo and the New York Public Library’s Council of Conservators.
Having been an artist-in-residence at MacDowell in 2019, during which time he completed significant work on Trust, Diaz has an intimate and expansive understanding of both the residency program—its daily rhythms of rest and work; its community of support and reciprocity—and the history of its founding, its campus, and the long, ever-growing list of artists that have come there before making groundbreaking contributions to art and culture.
Diaz stated, “MacDowell has played such a vital role for almost 120 years for good reasons. Here, the instrumental logic of universal exchange that rules our everyday lives is suspended. Here, work is given time to take root in deep reflection and branch out in wild configurations. Here, a beautiful and uniquely communal form of solitude allows for art to come forth.”
The MacDowell Board of Directors is composed of 48 volunteer members representing a broad spectrum of professional and artistic backgrounds. Its members support MacDowell’s mission and values and champion MacDowell Fellows, ensuring the vitality of a residency program that annually hosts 300 creators working across multiple disciplines, selected through a highly competitive process.
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About MacDowell | Founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and pianist Marian MacDowell, MacDowell is the nation’s first artist residency program. It was established to nurture the arts by providing exceptional creative individuals with an inspiring environment to produce enduring works of the imagination. Honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1997, MacDowell hosts 300 artists annually—including architects, composers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, theatre artists, visual artists and writers—from across the U.S. and around the world. Over the past 119 years, more than 16,500 residencies have been awarded to distinguished artists such as James Baldwin, Charlie Kaufman, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Louise Erdrich, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ayad Akhtar, Laura Poitras, Faith Ringgold, Meredith Monk, Osvaldo Golijov, Sam Grabiner, Ersela Kripa, Alyson Shotz, Maya Ciarrocchi and jaamil olawale kosoko. MacDowell Fellow and author Hernan Diaz Chairs MacDowell's Board of Directors.
