Our Finalists for the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards
PEN America has announced the shortlists for its 2019 Literary Awards in the categories of debut novel, debut short story collection, nonfiction, essay, biography, literary sports writing, literary science writing, and translation as well as the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. The 13 finalists published by Penguin Random House imprints and
Penguin Random House Publisher Services publisher clients are below:
EDUCATED: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Random House)
PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel
THERE THERE: A Novel by Tommy Orange (Alfred A. Knopf)
CHERRY: A Novel by Nico Walker (Alfred A. Knopf)
PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
BRING OUT THE DOG: Stories by Will Mackin (Random House)
PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
AMERICAN PRISON: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer (Penguin Press)
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
FEEL FREE: Essays by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)
PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Prize for Biography
PATRIOT NUMBER ONE: American Dreams in Chinatown by Lauren Hilgers (Crown)
LOOKING FOR LORRAINE: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry (Beacon Press, a PRHPS publisher client)
PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing
THE HERITAGE: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant (Beacon Press, a PRHPS publisher client)
PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
THE WORLD IN A GRAIN: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser (Riverhead)
SHE HAS HER MOTHER’S LAUGH: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer (Dutton Books)
PEN Translation Prize
LOVE by Hanne Ørstavik (Archipelago Books, a PRHPS publisher client)
Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
A CERTAIN PLUME by Henri Michaux (NYRB, a PRHPS publisher client)
Warm congratulations to all of our PEN shortlisted authors, their editors and publishers.
View the complete list of finalists here.
The winners will be celebrated at the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 26 at the NYU Skirball Center in Manhattan.