Four writers of creative prose and one children's author have won this year's McKnight Artist Fellowship.The annual prize goes to five writers, with categories alternating between poetry, creative prose, and writing for children. Recipients--who each receive $25,000--must have published at least one book or a significant number of publications in literary magazines.

This year's creative prose winners are:

Heid E. Erdrich, poet, memoirist, essayist. Author of "Original Local," a memoir in food and recipes, as well as five collections of poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at Augsburg College.

Erin Kate Ryan, whose short stories have appeared in many journals, including Glimmer Train, Booth and others.

Taiyon J Coleman, poet, essayist and fiction writer. She is a Cave Canem fellow and her writing has appeared in "Riding Shotgun," "The Ringing Ear," (edited by Nikky Finney) "Blues Visions," and other places. She teaches at St. Catherine University.

Susan Follett, auhor of "The Fog Machine," published in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer. She lives in Rosemount, Minn.

Heid E. Erdrich. Star Tribune file photo

And the winner in children's literature for children older than 8 is:

Brian Farrey, whose novel "With or Without You" was named a Stonewall honor book by the American Library Association and also won a Minnesota Book Award.

Honorable mentions in creative prose went to: Rebecca Kanner, Lori Saroya, Tami Mohamed Brown and Juliet Patterson. In children's literature the honorable mentions were Elizabeth Karre, Alison Behnke, Megan Atwood and Jane O'Reilly.