2023 PEN America Literary Award Winners

The 2023 PEN American Literary Award Winners have been introduced! This yr’s awards conferred $350,000 to writers and translators in eleven completely different classes that embrace fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, literature in translation, and extra. The winners had been introduced reside on the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 2, at The Town Hall in New York City, hosted by actor, creator, and former Obama White House aide Kal Penn.

This yr’s lifetime achievement awards got to comic and creator Tina Fey, author Vinod Kumar Shukl, thought-about one of many biggest modern writers within the Hindi language and acclaimed playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza. There had been 1,744 complete entries and this yr’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 certainly one of Indonesia’s most outstanding writers; Budi Darma; and different thrilling wins.

One of the highlights of the evening was Percival Everett’s win of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Everett is the creator 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 National Book Critics Circle Awards. “I don’t go out much, and for an old horseman this is kind of tough. I’d like to thank PEN for all they do — it’s an amazing organization. For the last 30 years I’ve had one agent [who] told me when we first started working together, ‘you’re never going to make me any money, so just write what you want to write. It was perhaps not well-advised, but I did.”

PEN America celebrates its 100 yr anniversary this yr and host Kal Pen spotlighted the busy yr that PEN America has had with the ever growing wave of censorship and e-book bans sweeping throughout American lecture rooms, college boards, and statehouses. He inspired friends and viewers to proceed to defend the liberty to learn. This yr additionally marks the sixtieth anniversary of the PEN Translation Prize, the primary of the prizes to be offered 60 years in the past. Actor, creator, and translator Molly Ringwald offered the interpretation prizes. This yr’s awards honored translations of books by authors from 20 completely different international locations and translators working in additional than a dozen languages.

2023 PEN America Literary Awards

PEN/Jean Stein Book 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 yr’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 Short Story Collection ($25,000)

This award is given to an creator whose debut assortment of quick tales represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests nice promise for future work. And this yr’s judges are Nafissa Thompson Spires, Chris Gonzalez, and Susan Muaddi Darraj.

Winner: Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House Books)

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel ($10,000)

This award is given to a debut novel of remarkable literary benefit by an American creator. And this yr’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 yr’s judges are Baba Badji, Mona Kareem, and Julia Leverone.

Winner: The Loose 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 yr’s judges are Layla Benitez-James, Slava Faybysh, Sora Kim-Russell, and Elton Uliana.

Winner: People from Bloomington by Budi Darma, translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao (Penguin Classics)

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art 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 yr’s judges are Jill Lepore, John McWhorter, and Simon Winchester.

Winner: A Left-Handed Woman by Judith Thurman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

PEN Open Book Award ($10,000)

This award is given to an distinctive book-length work of any literary style by an creator of colour. This yr’s judges are Jenn Baker, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Nina McConigley, and Erika L. Sanchez.

Winner: The Black Period by Hafizah Augustus Geter (Random House)

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

This award is given to a piece that exemplifies literary excellence with reference to the bodily or organic sciences and communicates advanced scientific ideas to a lay viewers. And this yr’s judges are Tim Folger, David Hu, and Emily Raboteau.

Winner: Heartbreak by Florence Williams (W. W. Norton & Company)

PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection

This award is given to a poet whose distinguished assortment of poetry represents a notable and achieved literary presence. This yr’s judges are Kimiko Hahn, Molly McCully Brown, Allison Rollins, and Willie Perdomo.

Winner: To The Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis (Penguin Random House)

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 yr’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 basic nonfiction possessing notable literary benefit and significant perspective that illuminates essential modern points. And this yr’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)

Looking for much more nice suggestions? Check out the entire 2023 PEN American Literary Award Longlists.