Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa and an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, will receive the 2025 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature from Words Without Borders. The awards recognizes an individual whose work and activism have advanced Words Without Border’s mission of promoting cultural understanding through the publication and promotion of international literature

Merrill will be presented the award at a ceremony on June 3 in New York City. A recording of the event will be made available on the Words Without Borders website. 

“As we celebrate the twelfth anniversary of the Ottaway Award, we are particularly delighted to recognize Christopher Merrill and the vital work he has done to promote international literature as director of the IWP over the past quarter century,” says Samantha Schnee, Words Without Boarder’s board chair.

Founded in 1967, the IWP is a cornerstone of global literary exchange that awards Iowa City residencies to talented writers from around the world, brings international writers into classrooms, and introduces American writers to other cultures. Over 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have been in residence at IWP, including three Nobel Laureates in Literature: Han Kang, Orhan Pamuk, and Mo Yan.

Since joining IWP as director in 2000, Merrill has significantly expanded the program by increasing the number of countries that send writers to IWP, facilitating the translation of international writers, and leading workshops and reading tours abroad. He also has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries. 

Merrill served on the US National Commission for UNESCO from 2011–2018, and in April of 2012, President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Humanities. Merrill also led the initiative that resulted in Iowa City being named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2008, making Iowa City the third UNESCO City of Literature and the first in North America. 

An accomplished writer, Merrill has published eight collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American

Poets, and On the Road to Lviv. He is also the author of many edited volumes and translations and six books of nonfiction, among them Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars; Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain; and The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War. His writings have been translated into nearly forty languages, and his honors include a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, numerous translation awards, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial and Ingram Merrill Foundations.