2023 Silvers-Dudley Prize Winners

Parul Sehgal

Parul Sehgal, a staff writer at The New Yorker, was previously a book critic at The New York Times, where she also worked as a senior editor and columnist. “Parul Sehgal is by now widely recognized for the exquisite discernment and disarming tact with which she confronts received notions and stale trends in the literary marketplace,” the judges said. “But it is her attention to the word on the page—her love of language—that elevates her criticism into something like art. Sentence by sentence, she exemplifies the virtues of subtlety, surprise, and above all, pleasure. She is a guide to reading jouissance from the smallest of units—the word, the phrase, the sentence—to the largest: character, perspective, revelation.”

Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder, a long-time contributor to The New York Review of Books and the author of acclaimed books on twentieth century history and the perils of totalitarianism, is the Levin Professor of History and Public Affairs. His historical work, grounded in research conducted in a dozen languages, has focused on Central and Eastern European history, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. The judges recognized Professor Snyder for his “rigorously researched and argued essays and books that bring a profound awareness of the past to bear on his explanations of today’s conflicts and crises.”

T. J. Clark

T. J. Clark is the George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught art history for twenty years. His focus on art throughout its history as an expression of social and political conditions of its time has brought what the judges called “revolutionarily fresh and vivifying insights into subjects as diverse as Bruegel, Giotto, Courbet, and Picasso in a manner that is as notable for its deep humanity as it is for its uncompromising acuity.” Since 2000, Professor Clark has written regularly for The London Review of Books and The Threepenny Review.

Ryan Ruby

Ryan Ruby is the author of The Zero and the One: A Novel and a book-length poem, Context Collapse. “A prolific poet, novelist, and translator, he has published rigorous critical essays on subjects ranging from Wittgenstein to Ashbery, T.S. Eliot to Ian McEwan, in a wide range of journals,” the judges noted. “He is a public intellectual with an accessible style and an appealing candor who promises to bring poetry and philosophy together again on the stage of literary criticism.” Mr. Ruby’s essays and reviews have appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Nation, The Point, Poetry, and New Left Review, among other venues.

Caitlin Dickerson

Caitlin Dickerson is an investigative reporter and feature writer for The Atlantic. The judges commended her “uncompromising, compassionate reporting, which illuminates the magnitude of America’s ongoing immigration crisis.” Ms. Dickerson has reported on immigration from three continents and dozens of cities in America, has broken news about changes in deportation and detention policy, and often profiles the lives of immigrants, including those without legal status. A Peabody and Edward R Murrow Award recipient, Ms. Dickerson is currently writing a book about the systemic impact of deportation on American society.

Tausif Noor

Tausif Noor is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. “His penetrating insights into global contemporary art arise from a profound understanding of the complex and often wrenching histories of colonialism and its ongoing aftermaths,” the judges noted. “Noor seamlessly intertwines considerations of aesthetics and production with an admirable sensitivity to the contexts of history and personality.” Mr. Noor has written for ArtForum, The New York Times, and frieze.