2009 McArthur fellows announced

The winners of one of the most prestigious awards in the US, the McArthur Fellows program, were announced this week. Also known as the McArthur genius grant, it’s a no-strings-attached award of $500,000 that winners don’t even know they’ve been nominated for until they receive notice that they’ve won via phone call. 24 people were named winners this week.
Winners are usually pretty impressive folks, activists, academics, researchers, journalists, writers. They range in age this year from 32 to 69, and are a geographically and racially diverse crew.
Anna Clark has a break down of the three writers who won awards, but profiles of all the winners can be found here.
A video of one of the winners, Camille Utterback, a digital artist, is after the jump.