A Whiting Award for Non-Fiction is Given to Sofi Thanhauser’s Worn: A People’s History Of Clothing

Since 1985, the Foundation has supported creative writing through the Whiting Awards, which are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Read about the most recent cohort below, browse the 40-year history of Whiting Award-winning writers, or search the full list of winners.

Sofi Thanhauser is a writer, artist, and musician based in Brooklyn. She is the author of Worn: A People’s History of Clothing (Pantheon, 2022) and has received fellowships from Fulbright, MacDowell, Ucross, and Millay Arts, among others. Her work has appeared in Vox, The Guardian, Observer Magazine, Dame, and Literary Hub, among others. Her second book, Shelter, is forthcoming from Riverhead.

Worn: In this panoramic social history, Sofi Thanhauser brilliantly tells five stories—Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool—about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our world in unexpected ways. She takes us from the opulent court of Louis XIV to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed with lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogenous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast-fashion brands.

Thanhauser makes clear how the clothing industry has become one of the planet’s worst polluters and how it relies on chronically underpaid and exploited laborers. But she also shows us how micro-communities, textile companies, and clothing makers in every corner of the world are rediscovering ancestral and ethical methods for making what we wear.

Drawn from years of intensive research and reporting from around the world, and brimming with fascinating stories, Worn reveals to us that our clothing comes not just from the countries listed on the tags or ready-made from our factories. It comes, as well, from deep in our histories.