# Christopher Hewitt Award

The Christopher Hewitt Award is an annual literary award given each June by A&U magazine for writing that addresses or relates to HIV/AIDS. One award is given in each of four categories: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and drama. Awards were first given in 2013. The winners for 2013 were Lisa Sandlin (fiction), Dorothy Alexander (poetry), Terry Dugan (creative nonfiction), and Evan Guilford-Blake (drama).
A&U (originally, Art & Understanding) was established in 1991 as a response to the ongoing loss of members of the creative community due to HIV/AIDS and as a forum for documenting their work. Today, the nonprofit magazine focuses on a variety of aspects of the global pandemic—including advocacy, prevention, and care—in addition to literature and the arts. Notable artists, activists, and writers are interviewed and featured in each issue. Examples include Anjelica Huston, Janet Jackson, Tony Kushner, George Takei, and Lupe Ontiveros.
The award was initiated by Brent Calderwood, A&U's literary editor from 2011 to 2015, along with Chael Needle, A&U's editor. It was named for Christopher Hewitt (1946–2004), who served as A&U's first literary editor. Born in Worcestershire, England, Hewitt immigrated to the United States in 1974. His poems and translations appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The Advocate, The James White Review, BENT, and in the anthology Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men Tell Their Stories. At the time of his death at the age of fifty-eight, he was working on a memoir titled “Brittle Bones,” in part about living with osteogenesis imperfecta.
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2020
Nonfiction: “The Handsomest Man in New York” by Patrick Mulcahey
Drama: “The Toe Incident” by Katherine Gleason
Poetry: “It Was Never Supposed to Be Ours” by Ben Kline
Fiction: “Soul Cowboy” by Cris Eli Blak
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2019
Nonfiction: “How Online Dating Empowers Women with HIV” by Claire Gasamagera
Drama: “My Darling Love” by Joe Gulla
Poetry: “Elegy for Ken Meeks” by Travis Chi Wing Lau
Fiction: No winning entry
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2018
Nonfiction: “The Custody Visit (1987)” by Andrea Laiacona Dooley
Drama: “Nancy F@&*ing Reagan” by Daniel Hurewitz
Poetry: “San Francisco General” by Greg Casale
Fiction: “The Pond” by John Whittier Treat
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2017
Nonfiction: “We Blessed” by John Boucher
Drama: “The War Years” by Charles Stephens
Poetry: No winning entry
Fiction: “The Love Whisperer” by Raymond Luczak
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2016
Nonfiction: “Save Tonight” by Jennifer Sembler
Drama: No winning entry
Poetry: “Days of 1993, ’94, and ’95” by Benjamin S. Grossberg
Fiction: “Albert’s Prayer” by Marie Esposito
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2015
Nonfiction: “Long-Term Survivor” by Victoria Noe
Drama: No winning entry
Poetry: “At the LGBT History Museum in San Francisco…” by Sean Patrick Mulroy (tied with) “New New Colossus” by Noah Stetzer
Fiction: “Drowned River” by Dale Corvino
Christoper Hewitt Award Winners 2014
Nonfiction: “Voicing That Inner Scream: Visibility and AIDS in LGBT Africa” by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko
Drama: No winning entry
Poetry: “Building Immunities” by Stephen Mead
Fiction: “After the Cure” by Stephen S. Mills
Christopher Hewitt Award Winners 2013
Nonfiction: “Like Taking Blood from a Baby” by Terry Dugan
Drama: “Cowboy Nocturne” by Evan Guilford-Blake
Poetry: “Trip to Wyuka” by Dorothy Alexander
Fiction: “Greyhound, 1984” by Lisa Sandlin