PEN America is thrilled to announce the longlists for the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards. Our awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning writers, editors, booksellers, and critics. Learn about the PEN America Literary Awards judges here.
This year’s awards will confer more than $370,000 to writers and translators whose exceptional literary works were published in 2018. Spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essays, science writing, sports writing, translation, and more, these longlisted books are bound to help you fulfill your gift giving needs in time for the holiday season. Please note: the PEN/Hemingway list will be announced in January 2019.
Stay tuned for further announcements about finalists and winners of the following awards: PEN/Jean Stein Book of the Year Award, Nabokov Award for International Literature, PEN/Osterweil Award for Poetry, PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, PEN/Pels Theater Award, PEN/Magid Award for Excellence in Editing, PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award.
The finalists for all book awards will be announced in January 2019. The winners will be celebrated at the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 26 at the NYU Skirball Center in NYC. Find out more about the event or purchase tickets here.
PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION ($25,000)
To an author whose debut collection of short stories published in 2018 represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.
White Dancing Elephants, Chaya Bhuvaneswar (Dzanc Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
A Lucky Man, Jamel Brinkley (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Some Trick, Helen DeWitt (New Directions)
IndieBound | Amazon
Basements and Other Museums, Vedran Husić (Black Lawrence Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Bloodshot Stories, Jeff P. Jones (Sunshot Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Half Gods, Akil Kumarasamy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Amazon
Her Adult Life, Jenn Scott (Acre Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Island Dwellers, Jen Silverman (Random House)
IndieBound | Amazon
Heads of the Colored People: Stories, Nafissa Thompson-Spires (37 INK, Atria)
IndieBound | Amazon
Bring Out the Dog, Will Mackin (Random House)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Chris Abani, Frances Hwang, Gary Lutz
PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD ($5,000)
To an exceptional book-length work of any genre by an author of color, published in the United States in 2018.
Cape Verdean Blues, Shauna Barbosa (University of Pittsburgh Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Brother, David Chariandy (Bloomsbury Publishing)
IndieBound | Amazon
All You Can Ever Know, Nicole Chung (Catapult)
IndieBound | Amazon
How to Sit: A Memoir in Stories and Essays, Tyrese Coleman (Mason Jar Press)
Amazon
The Terrible, Yrsa Daley-Ward (Penguin Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan (Alfred A. Knopf)
IndieBound | Amazon
Teeth Never Sleep, Ángel García (University of Arkansas Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Heads of the Colored People, Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Atria)
IndieBound | Amazon
Call Me Zebra, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
IndieBound | Amazon
Eye Level, Jenny Xie (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Hanif Abdurraquib, Cristina Arreola, Richie Narvaez, Kevin Nguyen, Elissa Washuta, Sunil Yapa
PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of prose from any language into English published in 2018.
Nevada Days, Bernardo Atxaga (Graywolf Press)
Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa
IndieBound | Amazon
The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter, Matei Calinescu (NYRB)
Translated from the Romanian by Adriana Calinescu
IndieBound | Amazon
Disoriental, Négar Djavadi (Europa Editions)
Translated from the French by Tina Kover
IndieBound | Amazon
The Stone Building and Other Places, Aslı Erdoğan (City Lights)
Translated from the Turkish by Sevinç Türkkan
IndieBound | Amazon
Mourning, Eduardo Halfon (Bellevue Literary Press)
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn
IndieBound | Amazon
Moon Brow, Shahriar Mandanipour (Restless Books)
Translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili
IndieBound | Amazon
Love, Hanne Ørstavik (Archipelago Books)
Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken
IndieBound | Amazon
CoDex 1962, Sjón (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
IndieBound | Amazon
Trick, Domenico Starnone (Europa Editions)
Translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri
IndieBound | Amazon
Aetherial Worlds, Tatyana Tolstaya (Alfred A. Knopf)
Translated from the Russian by Anya Migdal
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Ezra Fitz, Barbara Harshav, Vincent Kling, Marian Schwartz, Ron Slate
PEN AWARD FOR POETRY IN TRANSLATION ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English published in 2018.
The Shutters, Ahmed Bouanani (New Directions)
Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan
IndieBound | Amazon
Aperture, Jacek Dehnel (Zephyr Press)
Translated from the Polish by Karen Kovacik
IndieBound | Amazon
Revolution Goes Through Walls, Safaa Fathy (SplitLevel Texts)
Translated from the Arabic by Safaa Fathy and Pierre Joris
IndieBound | Amazon
Today, Juan Gelman (co•im•press)
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Rose Bradford
IndieBound | Amazon
Autobiography of Death, Kim Hyesoon (New Directions)
Translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi
IndieBound | Amazon
Negative Space, Luljeta Lleshanaku (New Directions)
Translated from the Albanian by Ani Gjika
IndieBound | Amazon
A Certain Plume, Henri Michaux (NYRB)
Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth
IndieBound | Amazon
Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania, Adam Mickiewicz (Archipelago)
Translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston
IndieBound | Amazon
Stormwarning, Kristín Tómasdóttir (Phoneme Media)
Translated from the Icelandic by K.B. Thors
IndieBound | Amazon
Asymmetry, Adam Zagajewski (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Sinan Antoon, Ewa Chrusciel, Peter Filkins, Katrine Øgaard Jensen
PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY ($10,000)
For a book of essays published in 2018 that exemplifies the essay form.
We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival, Jabari Asim (Picador)
IndieBound | Amazon
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
IndieBound | Amazon
Ladies Lazarus, Piper J. Daniels (Tarpaulin Sky Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
A Mouth is Always Muzzled, Natalie Hopkinson (The New Press)
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This Will Be My Undoing, Morgan Jerkins (Harper Perennial)
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Impossible Owls, Brian Phillips (FSG Originals)
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Feel Free, Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Against Memoir, Michelle Tea (Feminist Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
MINE: Essays, Sarah Viren (University of New Mexico Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Souls of Yellow Folk, Wesley Yang (W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Garrard Conley, Paul Reyes, Aisha Sabatini Sloan
PEN/BOGRAD WELD PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY ($5,000)
For a distinguished biography published in 2018.
Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World, Andrea Barnet (Ecco)
IndieBound | Amazon
Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster, Stephen L. Carter (Henry Holt & Co.)
IndieBound | Amazon
After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America’s Greatest Poet, Julie Dobrow(W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
Neruda: The Poet’s Calling, Mark Eisner (Ecco)
IndieBound | Amazon
Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown, Lauren Hilgers (Crown Publishing)
IndieBound | Amazon
We Met in Paris: Grace Frick and Her Life with Marguerite Yourcenar, Joan E. Howard(University of Missouri Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Making Oscar Wilde, Michele Mendelssohn (Oxford University Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Looking for Lorraine, Imani Perry (Beacon Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly, Joshua Rivkin (Melville House)
IndieBound | Amazon
Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography, Julia Van Haaften (W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Nell Irvin Painter, Sam Stephenson, Rachel Syme
PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION ($10,000)
To honor a distinguished book of general nonfiction published in 2017 or 2018.
One Person, No Vote, Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury Publishing)
IndieBound | Amazon
American Prison, Shane Bauer (Penguin Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)
IndieBound | Amazon
Amity and Prosperity, Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement, Matthew Horace (Hachette Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, Dunya Mikhail (New Directions Publishing)
IndieBound | Amazon
Dreamers: How Young Indians are Changing the World, Snigdha Poonam (Harvard University Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Girl From Kathmandu, Cam Simpson (Harper)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Making of a Dream, Laura Wides-Muñoz (Harper)
IndieBound | Amazon
In a Day’s Work, Bernice Yeung (The New Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Nana-Ama Danquah, McKenzie Funk, Syreeta McFadden, Christina Sharpe, Linda Villarosa
PEN/E.O. WILSON PRIZE FOR LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING ($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.
What is Real?, Adam Becker (Basic Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
The World in a Grain, Vince Beiser (Riverhead)
IndieBound | Amazon
Timefulness, Marcia Bjornerud (Princeton University Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Poison Squad, Deborah Blum (Penguin Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Beginning of Everything, Andrea Buchanan (Pegasus Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, Ben Goldfarb (Chelsea Green)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, David Quammen (Simon & Schuster)
IndieBound | Amazon
Seaweed Chronicles, Susan Hand Shetterly (Algonquin Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds, Lauren Slater(Little, Brown and Company)
IndieBound | Amazon
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, Carl Zimmer (Dutton Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
JUDGES: Arianne Shahvisi, Jeff VanderMeer, Christie Wilcox
PEN/ESPN AWARD FOR LITERARY SPORTS WRITING ($5,000)
To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2018.
The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars, Sebastian Abbot (W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West, John Branch (W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism, Howard Bryant(Beacon Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, Jane Leavy (Harper)
IndieBound | Amazon
Godspeed, Casey Legler (Atria Books)
IndieBound | Amazon
Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, Mark Leibovich (Penguin Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey, Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Amazon
Limits of the Known, David Roberts (W. W. Norton)
IndieBound | Amazon
Tropic of Football: The Long and Perilous Journey of Samoans to the NFL, Rob Ruck (The New Press)
IndieBound | Amazon
Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City, Albert Samaha (Public Affairs)
IndieBound | Amazon
