The 2023 PEN American Literary Award Winners have been introduced! This 12 months’s awards conferred $350,000 to writers and translators in eleven totally different classes that embody fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, literature in translation, and extra. The winners had been introduced stay on the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 2, at The City Corridor in New York Metropolis, hosted by actor, writer, and former Obama White Home aide Kal Penn.
This 12 months’s lifetime achievement awards got to comic and writer Tina Fey, author Vinod Kumar Shukl, thought of one of many best up to date writers within the Hindi language and acclaimed playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza. There have been 1,744 whole entries and this 12 months’s winners proceed the PEN American custom of honoring a various and distinctive group of writers and translators from throughout this nation and the world, together with a number of wins for Indigenous authors; a win for translator Tiffany Tsao, for her translation of one among Indonesia’s most distinguished writers; Budi Darma; and different thrilling wins.
One of many highlights of the evening was Percival Everett’s win of the PEN/Jean Stein Ebook Award. Everett is the writer of over 30 books since his debut was launched in 1983 and is beloved in literary circles. This win builds on different current recognition of his work, together with being a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, and being awarded the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award on the Nationwide Ebook Critics Circle Awards. “I don’t exit a lot, and for an outdated horseman that is type of robust. I’d prefer to thank PEN for all they do — it’s an incredible group. For the final 30 years I’ve had one agent [who] instructed me after we first began working collectively, ‘you’re by no means going to make me any cash, so simply write what you need to write. It was maybe not well-advised, however I did.”
PEN America celebrates its 100 12 months anniversary this 12 months and host Kal Pen spotlighted the busy 12 months that PEN America has had with the ever rising wave of censorship and e-book bans sweeping throughout American school rooms, faculty boards, and statehouses. He inspired company and viewers to proceed to defend the liberty to learn. This 12 months additionally marks the sixtieth anniversary of the PEN Translation Prize, the primary of the prizes to be offered 60 years in the past. Actor, writer, and translator Molly Ringwald offered the interpretation prizes. This 12 months’s awards honored translations of books by authors from 20 totally different nations and translators working in additional than a dozen languages.
2023 PEN America Literary Awards
PEN/Jean Stein Ebook Award ($75,000)
This award is given to a book-length work of any style for its originality, benefit, and influence, which has damaged new floor by reshaping the boundaries of its type and signaling sturdy potential for lasting affect. And this 12 months’s judges are Joan Naviyuk Kane, Lauren Groff, and Madeleine Thien.
Winner: Dr. No by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)
PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Quick Story Assortment ($25,000)
This award is given to an writer whose debut assortment of brief tales represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests nice promise for future work. And this 12 months’s judges are Nafissa Thompson Spires, Chris Gonzalez, and Susan Muaddi Darraj.
Winner: Night time of the Dwelling Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin Home Books)
PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel ($10,000)
This award is given to a debut novel of remarkable literary benefit by an American writer. And this 12 months’s judges are Gina Apostol, Oscar Cásares, and Matthew Salesses.
Winner: Calling For a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah (Algonquin Books)
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000)
This award is given to a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English. And this 12 months’s judges are Baba Badji, Mona Kareem, and Julia Leverone.
Winner: The Unfastened Pearl by Paula Ilabaca Nuñez, translated from Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky (Coimpress)
PEN Translation Prize ($3,000)
This award is given to a book-length translation of prose from any language into English. And this 12 months’s judges are Layla Benitez-James, Slava Faybysh, Sora Kim-Russell, and Elton Uliana.
Winner: Individuals from Bloomington by Budi Darma, translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao (Penguin Classics)
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Artwork of the Essay ($15,000)
This award is given to a seasoned author whose assortment of essays is an enlargement on their corpus of labor and preserves the distinguished artwork type of the essay. And this 12 months’s judges are Jill Lepore, John McWhorter, and Simon Winchester.
Winner: A Left-Handed Lady by Judith Thurman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
PEN Open Ebook Award ($10,000)
This award is given to an distinctive book-length work of any literary style by an writer of shade. This 12 months’s judges are Jenn Baker, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Nina McConigley, and Erika L. Sanchez.
Winner: The Black Interval by Hafizah Augustus Geter (Random Home)
PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
This award is given to a piece that exemplifies literary excellence with regards to the bodily or organic sciences and communicates complicated scientific ideas to a lay viewers. And this 12 months’s judges are Tim Folger, David Hu, and Emily Raboteau.
Winner: Heartbreak by Florence Williams (W. W. Norton & Firm)
PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Assortment
This award is given to a poet whose distinguished assortment of poetry represents a notable and achieved literary presence. This 12 months’s judges are Kimiko Hahn, Molly McCully Brown, Allison Rollins, and Willie Perdomo.
Winner: To The Realization of Excellent Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis (Penguin Random Home)
PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000)
This award is given to a biography of remarkable literary, narrative, and inventive benefit, primarily based on scrupulous analysis. And this 12 months’s judges are Manu Bhagavan and Silvana Paternostro.
Winner: Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas (MCD)
PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION
This award is given to a distinguished e-book of normal nonfiction possessing notable literary benefit and important perspective that illuminates vital up to date points. And this 12 months’s judges are Sanjiv Bhattacharya, Geraldo Cadava, and Sofija Stefanovic.
Winner: The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning by Eve Fairbanks (Simon & Schuster)
Searching for much more nice suggestions? Try the entire 2023 PEN American Literary Award Longlists.
