FROM THE HEART OF USC

Viewpoint

EXPERT OPINIONS

“We think we’re in charge of everything, which gives us a sense of control. So, most of our attempts to change our behavior focus on us being in charge, that all we have to do is convince ourselves that this is the right thing to do.”

WENDY WOOD, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business, in an April 22 Forbes article on how willpower and self-control affect ability to achieve goals. “Harbor commerce and harbor development can encourage cities to build right alongside whatever ocean they’re up against. Los Angeles doesn’t have that in any particular sense until later.”

WILLIAM DEVERELL, professor of history, spatial sciences and environmental studies, in a Jan. 26 Los Angeles Times article on why L.A.’s iconic skyline is so far from the beach.

“When everything sort of falls apart at the same time, there’s opportunity for reflection and new beginnings. And I think we’re at this sort of critical moment where if we don’t invest in our care infrastructure, if we don’t support families with things like paid family leave, with better education funding, with better child care infrastructure, we will collapse.”

DARBY SAXBE, associate professor of psychology, in a Jan. 26 LAist article on pandemic parenting.

New Literary Prize

Acclaimed Greek writer Christos Ikonomou wins USC Dornsife’s inaugural Chowdhury Prize in Literature. By Susan Bell

This spring, USC Dornsife’s Department of English launched the annual Chowdhury Prize in Literature, an international mid-career prize for writers — and the first literary award of its kind on the West Coast. The $20,000 prize is awarded by the English Department through the auspices of the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Foundation and in collaboration with Kenyon College and the Kenyon Review.

University Professor David St. John, professor of English and comparative literature and chair of English at USC Dornsife, said the Chowdhury Prize in Literature “is certain to be recognized as one of the most distinguished international prizes in the world.”

Greek author Christos Ikonomou is the inaugural winner of the prize, which was presented to him during a gala at USC on April 21.

Born in Athens in 1970 and hailed by critics as a “visionary social observer,” Ikonomou has published four collections of short stories, including Something Will Happen, You’ll See (Polis, 2010), which won Greece’s prestigious Best Short-Story Collection State Award.

Ikonomou’s dystopian tales are set within the political and economic climate of austerity in Greece and recount its devastating effect on working people.

The Chowdhury Prize administrator, David Ulin, professor of the practice of English at USC Dornsife and former Los Angeles Times book editor and book critic, noted that the new prize is not a retrospective award but seeks to identify and encourage authors with significant future potential.

Ulin said the jury’s decision to award Ikonomou the prize was unanimous.

“We thought he was doing remarkable work creatively, and that his work had a remarkable social component,” Ulin said. “But the most important aspect for us was the power of the writing, which made us really interested in supporting this writer in what comes next.”

St. John praised the jury as “one of the most distinguished judging panels one could create.” They include three USC Dornsife professors of English: Ulin, a California Book Award winner; National Book Critics Circle Award winner Maggie Nelson; and Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen. Other members of the panel are poet, playwright and essayist Claudia Rankine, former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets; and poet, translator and editor Arthur Sze, recipient of the 2021 Shelley Memorial Award and the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry.

All five are former Guggenheim Fellows and three — Nelson, Nguyen and Rankine — are MacArthur Fellows.