This just in from The Washington Post…

Author Dave Eggers Cops $250,000 Heinz Award

Author, philanthropist and literary entrepreneur Dave Eggers has become the youngest person ever to win one of the annual $250,000 awards from the Heinz Family Foundation. Eggers, 37, used earnings from his autobiographical 2000 bestseller "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" to launch 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center in San Francisco for children ages 6 to 18. Since then, the center has replicated itself in five other cities, with another branch scheduled to open this fall in Boston. "I think of it as a validation of the work that 826 does," a grateful Eggers said in an interview. He said the $250,000 would be split evenly among the seven centers.

By Bob Thompson/Washington Post, Wednesday, September 12, 2007


SOURCE: WashingtonPost.com