Trinity College Associate Professor of English Ethan Rutherford continues to receive accolades for his debut novel, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced recently that Rutherford has been recognized with the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Literature, which honors an exceptional novel published in the preceding year. Last fall, North Sun was named by the National Book Foundation as a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction.
Rutherford is among 18 recipients of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’s 2026 Awards in Literature, which honor both established and emerging writers. The 300 members of Arts and Letters nominate candidates for awards, and a rotating committee of writers selects the winners.
The literature awards will be presented alongside the architecture, art, and music awards at Arts and Letters’s annual Ceremonial in May.
Founded in 1898, the American Academy of Arts and Letters represents the highest standards of artistic achievement in the country. Its community of members are among the nation’s leading contemporary architects, visual artists, writers, and composers. Arts and Letters honors creative accomplishment through the election of members, the conferment of awards, and presenting public exhibitions and interdisciplinary programs at its historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
Read an interview with Rutherford as he discusses his novel here.
Trinity’s Summer Research Program supports intensive student involvement in ongoing faculty research. More than 100 Trinity students spent part of summer 2026 engaged in research projects with faculty mentors.
Anthony M. Messina, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, has received a 2026 Career Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association’s Section on Migration and Citizenship.
For one Trinity College alumnus, the work of conducting research with faculty-scholars didn’t stop at graduation. Jacob Loor ’25—now a second-year law student at Yale Law School—recently had an article that he co-wrote with two Trinity faculty members published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Trinity College’s Austin Arts Center and its resident theater company, HartBeat Ensemble, will present Athol Fugard’s South African drama “A Lesson from Aloes” from October 8 through October 17, 2026.
