Announcing the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists
PEN America is thrilled to announce the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists!
Our Awards are juried by panels of esteemed writers, editors, translators, and critics. You can learn more about this year’s judges here.
This year’s Literary Awards will confer over $330,000 to writers and translators whose exceptional literary works were published in 2019. Spanning fiction, poetry, essay, science writing, translation, and more, these Finalist titles are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of literary excellence.
The winners will be announced live at the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 2 at the Town Hall in New York City and hosted by Seth Meyers. You can purchase your tickets here.
PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD ($75,000)
For a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.
Judges: Marilyn Chin, Garth Greenwell, Rebecca Makkai, Michael Schaub, and William T. Vollmann
The Undying, Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
Deaf Republic, Ilya Kaminsky (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Where Reasons End, Yiyun Li (Random House)
IndieBound | Hudson
The World Doesn’t Require You, Rion Amilcar Scott (Liveright)
IndieBound | Hudson
Rusty Brown, Chris Ware (Pantheon Graphic Library)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT SHORT STORY COLLECTION ($25,000)
To an author whose debut collection of short stories represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise for future work.
Judges: Aimee Bender, Jamel Brinkley, Samantha Hunt, Randa Jarrar, Elissa Schappell
The Trojan War Museum, Ayşe Papatya Bucak (W.W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sabrina & Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine (One World)
IndieBound | Hudson
Last of Her Name, Mimi Lok (Kaya Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Home Remedies, Xuan Juliana Wang (Hogarth)
IndieBound | Hudson
Lot, Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL ($25,000)
To a debut novel of exceptional literary merit by an American author.
Judges: R.O. Kwon, Terese Marie Mailhot, David L. Ulin
Stay and Fight, Madeline ffitch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
99 Nights in Logar, Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
IndieBound | Hudson
Big Familia, Tomas Moniz (Acre Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Travelers, Regina Porter (Hogarth)
IndieBound | Hudson
A Prayer for Travelers, Ruchika Tomar (Riverhead Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD ($5,000)
To an exceptional book-length work of any genre by an author of color.
Judges: Ali Eteraz, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Dawn Lundy Martin, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Camille Rankine, Héctor Tobar
Build Yourself a Boat, Camonghne Felix (Haymarket Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
Be Recorder, Carmen Giménez Smith (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Erou, Maya Phillips (Four Way Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
We Cast a Shadow, Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Grave on the Wall, Brandon Shimoda (City Lights Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN Translation Prize ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of prose from any language into English.
Judges: Sean Gasper Bye, Jim Hicks, Geoffrey C. Howes, Sara Khalili, Elizabeth Lowe, Jenny McPhee
If You Cross the River: A Novel, Geneviève Damas (Milkweed Editions)
Translated from the French by Jody Gladding
IndieBound | Hudson
The Ten Loves of Nishino, Hiromi Kawakami (Europa Editions)
Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
IndieBound | Hudson
Beyond Babylon, Igiaba Scego (Two Lines Press)
Translated from the Italian by Aaron Robertson
IndieBound | Hudson
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel, Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books)
Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
IndieBound | Hudson
The Scent of Buenos Aires: Stories, Hebe Uhart (Archipelago Books)
Translated from the Spanish by Maureen Shaughnessy
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN AWARD FOR POETRY IN TRANSLATION ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English.
Judges: Michael Eskin, Forrest Gander, Pierre Joris
Final Matters: Selected Poems, 2004-2010, Szilárd Borbély (Princeton University Press)
Translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet
IndieBound | Hudson
Room in Rome, Jorge Eduardo Eielson (Cardboard House Press)
Translated from the Spanish by David Shook
IndieBound | Hudson
Daybook 1918: Early Fragments, J.V. Foix (Northwestern University Press)
Translated from the Catalan by Lawrence Venuti
IndieBound | Hudson
Killing Plato, Chantal Maillard (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert
IndieBound | Hudson
The Winter Garden Photograph, Reina María Rodríguez (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000)
For a collection of essays which exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.
Judges: Jelani Cobb, Daniel Menaker, Judith Thurman
I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz, Eve Babitz (New York Review Books Classics)
IndieBound | Hudson
Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio’s Natural Landscape, Deborah Fleming (Kent State University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Make It Scream, Make It Burn: Essays, Leslie Jamison (Little, Brown and Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution, Emily Nussbaum (Random House)
IndieBound | Hudson
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino (Random House)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY ($5,000)
For a distinguished biography of exceptional literary, narrative, and artistic merit, based on scrupulous research.
Judges: David W. Blight, Yunte Huang, Miriam Pawel, Rebecca Walker, Shawn Wen
Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas, Stephen Budiansky (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures, Adina Hoffman (Yale University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sontag: Her Life and Work, Benjamin Moser (Ecco)
IndieBound | Hudson
Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution, Helen Zia (Ballantine Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD ($10,000)
For a book that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience.
Judges: Diane Ackerman, Rivka Galchen, Priyamvada Natarajan
Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition, Patricia S. Churchland (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves, Frans de Waal (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden, Elizabeth Hennessy (Yale University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption, Dahr Jamail (New Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Losing Earth: A Recent History, Nathaniel Rich (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
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