Writing lab receives $25,000 boost

Writing lab 826 Seattle, which provides creative-writing coaching and instruction to youth, will get 10 percent of the $250,000 recently awarded its founder, novelist Dave Eggers.

Best known for his 2001 autobiography, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," Eggers won a Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities last week. The award cited Eggers, 37, as "an accomplished and versatile man of letters" and "the protagonist of a real-life story of generosity and inspiration."

In 2002 Eggers founded 826 Valencia, a writing laboratory for children, which has expanded from his home in San Francisco to Ann Arbor, Mich.; Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. Each program except Boston will get $25,000 of the prize money, said 826 Seattle spokesman David Brotherton. Boston, the latest chapter to be created, will get $50,000 to help it get started, and the national organization will receive $50,000.