Eileen G’Sell, a senior lecturer for the College Writing Program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a 2023 Rabkin Prize for visual arts journalism.
Launched in 2017 by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, the annual prize provides unrestricted grants of $50,000 to American art writers who write for general audiences. Candidates are selected by a panel of nominators, who are asked to identify “the essential visual art journalist working in your part of the country.”
G’Sell writes about art, film and culture for a wide variety of publications, including Hyperallergic, Salon and the Riverfront Times. Recent articles include pieces on Little Richard, Counterpublic 2023, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and the nature of cultural capital. G’Sell is also the author of several poetry chapbooks and the full-length collection “Life After Rugby” (2018). Her latest book of poetry, “Francofilaments,” forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books, features excerpts from interviews with actors and filmmakers including Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Céline Sciamma.
Based in Portland, Maine, the Rabkin Foundation has to date given a total of $3.25 million to 62 individual art writers. Leo Rabkin was an artist who worked and exhibited in New York City for 60 years. His wife, Dorothea, joined with Leo to create a landmark collection of American folk and outsider art. For more information about the foundation or the 2023 recipients, visit rabkinfoundation.org.
