He had largely abandoned dramatic writing by the time his first poetry collection was published in 1956. In an October 1978 interview, he described an untitled dramatic "work-in-progress" of about 100 pages that he had been developing, on and off, for several years. However, his final new play was "To the Mill", published in 1960 as part of "The Hasty Papers" magazine edited by Alfred Leslie. It is not clear what became of the "work-in-progress". Jack Larson, an actor and writer, nominated Ashbery and two others for the Rockefeller Foundation's playwright-in-residence program in 1978. In December 1978, the Rockefeller Foundation announced Ashbery and eight playwrights would receive grants under the program, though he was the only one listed without a paired theater. "The New York Times" announced the grant awards three months later, but still listed Ashbery only as "theater to be determined". It does not seem to be the case that he ultimately worked with a theater under the "playwright-in-residence" program, but he did receive the grant. In 1985, the MacArthur Foundation named Ashbery as one of 25 new MacArthur Fellows. Colloquially known as the "genius" grant, the fellowship is given to "outstandingly talented and creative people" so that they may "pursue whatever they believe is important and relevant", without conditions or limitations on how they spend the grant money. At the time, each fellow received between $155,000 and $300,000 over the course of five years, with higher value based on age. Between 1985 and 1990, Ashbery received $272,000, or $54,400 a year. Because of the MacArthur Fellowship, he was able to quit his jobs as a professor at Brooklyn College and as an art critic at "Newsweek". The Wallace Stevens fellowship, named for American poet Wallace Stevens, was a program of the Timothy Dwight College at Yale University. It was established in 1976 by an anonymous donation from a fellow from the college. An annual program, the fellowship invited a prominent poet to come to the college and give readings of their work. The first Wallace Stevens fellow was Richard Eberhart, who was in residence at the college at the time. Ashbery was appointed to the fellowship in 1985. The following awards and honors were bestowed in recognition of Ashbery as an individual, either for lifetime achievement or the cumulative sum of his literary career and oeuvre. Ashbery received several honors from universities and academic institutions.