Late-life literary success makes Brooklyn College teacher one of three CUNY profs to win Guggenheim Fellowships

A Brooklyn College professor whose hit novel made her a literary sensation in her late 60s is among three CUNY professors to win prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships, university officials announced Friday.

Sigrid Nunez, 69, authored the National Book Award-winning novel “The Friend," which depicts a woman’s grief over the death of a close friend as she cares for his dog. She’s among 175 recipients of this year’s grants, which aim to give awardees the financial freedom to pursue their creative work.

The other CUNY grant winners are Nunez’s fellow Brooklyn College professor and fiction writer Helen Phillips, and artist Valerie Tevere, a College of Staten Island Professor.

“We are so proud of these educator-artists as they carry on the tradition of Guggenheim Fellows from the City University of New York,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We are grateful for the bright lights they shine on our University in these challenging times.”

Sigrid Nunez attends the launch of the capital campaign to purchase the historic Mailer home in Provincetown hosted by the Norman Mailer Center and Van Cleef & Arpels and honoring Simon de Pury at Private Residence on March 11, 2012, in New York City. (Donald Bowers/Getty Images)

Nunez, who was raised in public housing in Staten Island by a German and Panamanian-Chinese parents, has been publishing novels for decades. “The Friend" finally vaulted her to literary acclaim.

In her National Book Award acceptance speech, she credited her writing with making the "miraculous possible: to be removed from the world and to be a part of the world at the same time.”

Phillips, 39, captured the fears of motherhood in her 2019 novel “The Need,” which chronicles a mom’s tense confrontation with a home intruder.

Helen Phillips, American writer, Pordenone, Italy, Sept. 7, 2017. (Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images)

Tevere works to capture music and sound through her art. A recent project gathers music from post-Katrina New Orleans into a radio broadcast.

The Guggenheim recipients this year range from age 29 to 82, and represent 75 academic institutions, officials said.

"It’s exceptionally encouraging to be able to share such positive news at this terribly challenging time,” said Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation. “A Guggenheim fellowship has always offered practical assistance, helping fellows do their work, but for many of the new fellows, it may be a lifeline at a time of hardship, a survival tool as well as a creative one.”