PEN America is thrilled to announce the winners for its 2017 PEN America Literary Awards. This year’s awards will confer over $300,000 to writers and translators for their exceptional literary works and careers across the fields of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, translation, and more.

2017 PEN AMERICA LITERARY AWARDS WINNERS

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award ($75,000): To recognize a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact.

JUDGES: Sonali Deraniyagala, Carolyn Forché, Gregory Pardlo, Norman Rush, and Deborah Treisman

WINNER:

The Return: Fat hers, Sons and the Land in Between

Hisham Matar

Random House

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction ($25,000): To an author whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2016—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

JUDGES: Jami Attenberg, Tanwi Nandini Islam, Randall Kenan, Hanna Pylväinen, and Akhil Sharma

WINNER:

Insurrections

Rion Amilcar Scott

University Press of Kentucky

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature ($50,000): To a writer of any genre and of any nationality for their exceptional body of work.

JUDGES: Aravind Adiga, Ayad Akhtar, Robin Coste Lewis, Jessica Hagedorn, and Thrity Umrigar

WINNER:

Adonis

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays published in 2016 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.

JUDGES: Eula Biss, Kiese Laymon, and Paul Steiger

WINNER:



The Girls in My Town

Angela Morales

University of New Mexico Press

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000): To an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction published in 2015 or 2016 possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues.

JUDGES: Julia Angwin, Rich Benjamin, Jeff Biggers, Charles Duhigg, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Lizzie Stark, and Jessica Valenti

WINNER:

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew Desmond

Crown/Penguin Random House

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Awards($7,500 and $2,500): Three awards which honor a Master American Dramatist, American Playwright in Mid-Career, and Emerging American Playwright. JUDGES: Oskar Eustis, Michael C. Hall, and Young Jean Lee Master American Dramatist:

WINNER: Suzan-Lori Parks

American Playwright in Mid-Career:

WINNER: Tarell Alvin McCraney

Emerging American Playwright:

WINNER: Thomas Bradshaw

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award ($10,000): For a book of literary nonfiction on the subject of the physical or biological sciences published in 2016.

JUDGES: Emily Anthes, Amy Ellis Nutt, Robin Marantz Henig, and Emma Marris WINNER:



Luke Dittrich

Penguin Random House

Amazon | Indie Bound Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family SecretsLuke DittrichPenguin Random House PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History ($10,000): For a literary work of nonfiction that uses oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place or movement. JUDGES: Gaiutra Bahadur, Helen Epstein, and Dan Kennedy WINNER:

How Did You Get Here?:Tales of Displacement

Aleksandar Hemon



PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2016.

JUDGES: Ishmael Beah, Major Jackson, and Bich Minh Nguyen

WINNER:



What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

Helen Oyeyemi

Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House

Amazon | IndieBound

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): For a distinguished biography published in 2016.

JUDGES: Evelyn C. White, Joyce Johnson, and Yunte Huang

WINNER:





Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary

Joe Jackson

Farrar, Straus, & Giroux

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2016.

JUDGES: Jay Caspian Kang, Juliet Macur, and David Owen

WINNER:

Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA

Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss

Portfolio/Penguin Random House

Amazon | Indie Bound

PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): For a writer whose body of work represents an exceptional contribution to the field.

JUDGES: Pete Hamill, Sally Jenkins, and Michael Sokolove

WINNER:

PEN/Nora Magid Award for Editing ($2,500): For a magazine editor whose high literary standards and taste have contributed significantly to the excellence of the publication he or she edits. JUDGES: Michael Dumanis, Caitlin McKenna, and David L. Ulin WINNERS: Michael Archer and Joel Whitney for Guernica

PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers($2,000 to 12 writers): To recognize 12 emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published in 2016.

JUDGES: Marie-Helene Bertino, Kelly Link, and Nina McConigley

WINNERS:

“Galina” (Fifth Wednesday Journal), Angela Ajayi

“The Handler” (Southwest Review), Amber Caron

“Tell Me, Please” (The Common), Emily Chammah

“The Asphodel Meadow” (The Summerset Review), Jim Cole

“Solee” (The Southern Review), Crystal Hana Kim

“The Manual Alphabet” (Fence), Samuel Clare Knights

“Goldhawk” (The Malahat Review), Katherine Magyarody

“A Modern Marriage” (Boston Review), Grace Oluseyi

“1,000-Year-Old Ghosts” (Hyphen Magazine), Laura Chow Reeve

“State Facts for the New Age” (The Rumpus), Amy Sauber

“A Message” (Epiphany: A Literary Journal), Ruth Serven

“Edwin Chase of Nantucket” (Harvard Review), Ben Shattuck