2024 Hall of Fame Inductee
Ben Lerner honed his mastery of the word through the THS debate program, where he earned national titles. Since then, he has written eight books of poetry and three novels while teaching English as a Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College. His writing has earned him fellowships from the Guggenheim, MacArthur, and Fulbright Foundations, which took him to Spain.
Ben created his own undergraduate curriculum at Brown University to complete a degree in political theory. He went on to earn a master’s in poetry. His new book of poetry, The Lights, was published last fall.
His most recent novel, The Topeka School, won numerous accolades, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and he has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.