Seven New Yorkers, including a journalist, a playwright, and a prominent figure in the downtown new music scene, are among this year’s recipients of MacArthur fellowships, the so-called genius grants awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The names of all 25 fellows, each of whom will receive $500,000 in installments over five years, are to be announced today.

The New York recipients include the author of “Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx,” Adrian Nicole Leblanc; a playwright whose play “The Clean House” begins performances at Lincoln Center Theater on October 5, Sarah Ruhl; a composer and promoter of experimental music, John Zorn; a jazz violinist, Regina Carter, and three visual artists, Josiah McElheny, Anna Schuleit, and Shahzia Sikander.

Ms. LeBlanc, who spent 10 years following the lives of members of a Bronx family for her book, said the award gives her “an enormous sense of freedom” to devote herself to the projects she cares about. “I feel like it’s someone saying, ‘We want to know what you believe in,'” she said. On a practical level, it means she can hire someone to transcribe her “boxes and boxes of minidisk interviews” for her next book, about stand-up comedians.

Mr. Zorn, whose record label is Tzadik and who runs a music venue in the East Village called the Stone, said he was extremely grateful to the community of downtown musicians who have supported him over the years. “The best thing that could happen with this award is maybe a long overdue light could be shined on that community and their work, and people would start taking it a little more seriously,” he said. “Because, let’s face it, we live in a world where dumbing-down is the order of the day.” He said he was shocked to receive the award. “It’s unbelievable: Acknowledgment in your lifetime is such a rare, precious thing.”

The fellows are informed about the award by phone several days before the list is made public. Most have had no idea that they were being considered. (Hundreds of anonymous nominators around the country make nominations, and an anonymous, 12-member committee selects the final recipients.)

“I never had dreamt of being even eligible for this,” Ms. Schuleit, a painter and installation artist who has done site-specific works in former mental hospitals, said. On hearing about the award, she said she had two immediate impulses: “One was they must have made a mistake in the database somewhere; maybe the middle initial was the wrong one. And the other was that I have to go and work!”