2019 PEN America Winners
Winners of the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards were announced February 26, 2019 in an awards ceremony held at the NYU Skirball Center in New York NY.
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Mariner) won the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award given “to the author of a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, and that has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.” Judges for the award were Jennifer Clement, Matthew Desmond, Natalie Diaz, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Charles Yu.
“Vain Beasts” by A.B. Young (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 7/18) was one of 12 recipients of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
The Wandering: Choose Your Own Red Shoes Adventure by Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen Epstein, was one of the 10 recipients of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants, receiving $3,500 “to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English.”
As previously reported, Sandra Cisneros was awarded the $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.
The winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel will be announced April 7, 2019 at the JFK Museum and Library in Boston MA.
For more information, including a complete list of winners, see the PEN America website.
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