The Clemente Course in the Humanities is proud to announce writer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay  as the first recipient of the Clemente Course Public Humanities Prize, made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation. The award honors a changemaker whose work reflects Clemente’s belief in the transformative power of the humanities in public life.

We will celebrate the humanities and Phil Klay on September 18, 2025, at 5 p.m. at the MassArt Design & Media Center Atrium in Boston, with a reading followed by a discussion. If you would like to attend, please click here to connect with Clemente’s Outreach Manager for more information. 

Executive Director Aaron Rosen commented, “One of the things that impresses me most about Phil’s writing is the deep empathy that underlies it, his capacity to truly understand what motivates people from all walks of life, and the fundamental questions with which they struggle.  He truly speaks to the experiences of our diverse student body.”

One of Clemente’s signature programs is the  Clemente Veterans’ Initiative (CVI), which utilizes great works of literature to help veterans explore questions of duty, sacrifice, and moral injury in the company of peers, with similar experiences and challenges. CVI students regularly read Klay’s work as a staple of their curriculum. 

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Klay is the author of the National Book Award-winning Redeployment, the acclaimed novel Missionaries, and the essay collection Uncertain Ground. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and other publications. He currently teaches fiction at Fairfield University.