This year's MacArthur 'genius' awardees include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda

Ta-Nahisi Coates is among the 2015 MacArthur &quot;genius&quot; awardees

(Image credit: Faceook/TaNehisi.Coates)

last updated 29 September 2015

Early Tuesday, the MacArthur Foundation announced the winners of its coveted 2015 fellowships, or "genius awards," naming 24 honorees who will receive $625,000 over five years to continue their work in the arts and sciences, no strings attached. The class of 2015 includes journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who writes about race for The Atlantic; Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and stars in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton; and the puppeteer Basil Twist. You can read the full list of 2015 MacArthur Fellow here.

"These 24 delightfully diverse MacArthur Fellows are shedding light and making progress on critical issues, pushing the boundaries of their fields, and improving our world in imaginative, unexpected ways," MacArthur President Julia Stasch said in a statement.

Each recipient was notified by telephone, and instructed not to share the news until the fellows were announced. Coates got the call at his apartment in Paris. "I wished I could be cool," he told The New York Times. "But you just can't be cool." Artist Nicole Eisenman was buying bacon in a grocery store on Fire Island, New York. "The part of the award that is most meaningful is the validation and the vote of confidence from my peers or whoever this mysterious force is that decides I'm going to get this," she tells The Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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