PEN Literary Awards Short List 2016

Earlier this week PEN released their 2016 Literary Awards Shortlist. PEN is an organisation that promotes and defends freedom of speech through writing and opposes arbitrary censorship especially in times of conflict and political upheaval.

To read more about their charter and the other projects they are involved in click here.

The awards are separated into eight groups and each group has five titles shortlisted.

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction

To an author whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2015—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

JUDGES: Helon Habila, Elizabeth McCracken, Edie Meidav, and Jess Row

In the Country: Stories – Mia Alvar
US: UK:

The Turner House – Angela Flournoy
US: UK:

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor – Julie Iromuanya
US: UK:

The Sympathizer: A Novel – Viet Thanh Nguyen
US: UK:

Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness – Jennifer Tseng
US: UK:

After the Tall Timber: Collected Non-Fiction – Renata Adler
US: UK:

Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coate
US: UK:

The Quarry – Susan Howe
US: UK:

The Givenness of Things: Essays – Marilynne Robinson
US: UK:

Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles – David L. Ulin
US: UK:

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

For a book of essays published in 2015 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.

JUDGES: Verlyn Klinkenborg, Meghan O’Rourke, and Luc Sante

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

For a book of literary non-fiction on the subject of the physical or biological sciences published in 2015.

JUDGES: Joshua Foer, Virginia Hughes, and Sonia Shah

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History – Cynthia Barnett
US: UK:

The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World – Joel K. Bourne Jr
US: UK:

The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star – Tom Clynes
US: UK:

Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future – Lauren Redniss
US: UK:

Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World – Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe
US: UK:

Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson – Kent Babb
US: UK:

The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost in the Last Days of Castro’s Cuba – Brin-Jonathan Butler
US: UK:

The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball’s Lost Triumph – Scott Ellsworth
US: UK:

Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty – Bengie Molina with Joan Ryan
US: UK:

The Grind: Inside Baseball’s Endless Season – Barry Svrluga
US: UK:

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.

To honour a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2015.

JUDGES: David Epstein, Ann Killion, and Dave Zirin

PEN Open Book Award

For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2015.

JUDGES: Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Celeste Ng, and Héctor Tobar

Chord – Rick Barot
US: UK:

Bastards of the Reagan Era – Reginald Dwayne Betts
US: UK:

Forest Primeval: Poems – Vievee Francis
US: UK:

Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey – Marie Mutsuki Mockett
US: UK:

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape – Lauret Savoy
US: UK:

Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art – Nancy Princenthal
US: UK:

John le Carré: The Biography – Adam Sisman
US: UK:

Michelle Obama: A Life – Peter Slevin
US: UK:

Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva – Rosemary Sullivan
US: UK:

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.

For a distinguished biography published in 2015.

JUDGES: Nell Irvin Painter, Deborah Solomon, and Simon Winchester

PEN Translation Prize

For a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2015. JUDGES: Elisabeth Jaquette, Aviya Kushner, Ronald Meyer, Sara Nović, and Jeffrey Zuckerman

The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector -(Portugese) Katrina Dodson

US: UK:

The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin -(Russian) Jamey Gambrell

US: UK:

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – (Russian) Oliver Ready

US: UK:

The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov – (Bulgarian) Angela Rodel

US: UK:

Hollow Heart by Viola di Grado – (Italian) Antony Shugaar

US: UK:

The School of Solitude: Collected Poems by Luis Hernánde – (Spanish)  Anthony Geist US: UK:

The Late Poems of Wang An-shih – (Chinese) David Hinton US: UK:

Rilke Shake by Angélica Freitas – (Portuguese) Hilary Kaplan US: UK:

I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky – (Russian) Philip Metres and Dimitri Psurtsev US: UK:

The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa – (Japanese) Sawako Nakayasu US: UK:

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.

For a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2015. JUDGE: Urayoán Noel

I cannot believe the diverse nature of the above nominated books; this truly is an award that rewards the huge variations that literature encompasses.

The winners will be announced on March 1st, with the winners of Debut Fiction, Art of the Essay, and Literary Science Writing awards being named during a live ceremony on April 11th.