Antopol, Gay, Rankine on PEN Literary Awards Shortlists

PEN American Center announced the shortlists for the 2015 PEN Literary Awards. The winners, including career achievement winners, will be announced on May 13, with the exception of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the PEN Open Book Award, which will be revealed June 8 at a ceremony honoring all winners in New York.

 

The 2015 shortlists are:

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 2014—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

JUDGES: Caroline Fraser, Katie Kitamura, Paul La Farge, and Victor LaValle

SHORTLIST:

The UnAmericans (W. W. Norton & Company), Molly Antopol

Ruby (Hogarth), Cynthia Bond

Redeployment (Penguin Press), Phil Klay

The Dog (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Jack Livings

Love Me Back (Doubleday), Merritt Tierce

 

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays published in 2014 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.

JUDGES: Diane Johnson, Dahlia Lithwick, Vijay Seshadri, and Mark Slouka

 

SHORTLIST:

Moral Imagination (Princeton University Press), David Bromwich

Theater of Cruelty (New York Review Books), Ian Buruma

Loitering (Tin House Books), Charles D’Ambrosio

The Empathy Exams (Graywolf Press), Leslie Jamison

Limber (Sarabande Books), Angela Pelster

 

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 2014.

JUDGES: Sue Halpern, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and Carl Zimmer

 

SHORTLIST:

War of the Whales (Simon & Schuster), Joshua Horwitz

How We Got to Now (Riverhead Books), Steven Johnson

The Sixth Extinction (Henry Holt and Co.), Elizabeth Kolbert

The Age of Radiance (Scribner), Craig Nelson

Proof (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Adam Rogers

 

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000): To an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues which has been published in 2013 or 2014.

JUDGES: Andrew Blechman, Paul Elie, Azadeh Moaveni, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, and Paul Reyes

 

SHORTLIST:

Our Declaration (Liveright), Danielle Allen

League of Denial (Crown Archetype), Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru

Five Days at Memorial (Crown), Sheri Fink

The Big Truck That Went By (Palgrave Macmillan), Jonathan M. Katz

This Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster), Naomi Klein

 

PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2014.

JUDGES: R. Erica Doyle, W. Ralph Eubanks, and Chinelo Okparanta

 

SHORTLIST:

An Unnecessary Woman (Grove Press), Rabih Alameddine

Every Day Is for the Thief (Random House), Teju Cole

An Untamed State (Black Cat/ Grove Atlantic), Roxane Gay

Citizen (Graywolf Press), Claudia Rankine

The City Son (Soho Press), Samrat Upadhyay

 

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): For a distinguished biography published in 2014.

JUDGES: Emily Bernard, Nicholas Fox Weber, and Jon Meacham

 

SHORTLIST:

Rebel Yell (Scribner), S. C. Gwynne

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (Scribner), Jeff Hobbs

Strange Glory (Alfred A. Knopf), Charles Marsh

The Queen's Bed (Sarah Crichton Books), Anna Whitelock

Piero's Light (Pegasus Books), Larry Witham

 

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2014.

JUDGES: Rich Cohen, George Dohrmann, and Jonathan Mahler

 

SHORTLIST:

Boy on Ice (W. W. Norton & Company), John Branch

Black Noon (Thomas Dunne Books), Art Garner

All Fishermen are Liars (Simon & Schuster), John Gierach

Ping-Pong Diplomacy (Scribner), Nicholas Griffin

Deep (Eamon Dolan Books), James Nestor

 

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): For a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2014.

JUDGE: Ana Božičević

 

SHORTLIST:

Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon (Action Books), translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi

I Am the Beggar of the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), translated from the Pashto by Eliza Griswold

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Juana Inés de la Cruz (W. W. Norton & Company), translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman

Breathturn into Timestead by Paul Celan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), translated from the German by Pierre Joris

Guantanamo by Frank Smith (Les Figues Press), translated from the Spanish by Vanessa Place

 

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): For a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2014.

JUDGES: Heather Cleary, Lucas Klein, Tess Lewis, and Allison Markin Powell

 

SHORTLIST:

The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla (New York Review Books), translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush

The Symmetry Teacher by Andrei Bitov (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), translated from the Russian by Polly Gannon

Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt (Two Lines Press), translated from the Danish by Denise Newman

Texas: The Great Theft by Carmen Boullosa (Deep Vellum Publishing), translated from the Spanish by Samantha Schnee

Self-Portrait in Green by Marie NDiaye (Two Lines Press), translated from the French by Jordan Stump

 

2015 CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

(The following PEN Awards do not have longlists. The winners will be announced on May 13.)

PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize ($10,000): For a promising young writer under the age of 35 for an unpublished work of nonfiction that addresses a global and/or multicultural issue.

JUDGES: John Freeman, Roxane Gay, and Cristina Henríquez

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: Kathleen Chalfant, Ellen McLaughlin, and Adam Rapp

PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry ($5,000): For an emerging American poet showing promise of further literary achievement.

JUDGES: Marie Howe, Mary Szybist, and Craig Morgan Teicher

PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship ($5,000): For an author of children’s or young-adult fiction to complete a book-length work-in-progress.

JUDGES: Viola Canales, Selene Castrovilla, and Elizabeth Levy

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: Mike Barnicle, Franklin Foer, and Selena Roberts

PEN/Nora Magid Award for Editing ($2,500): For a magazine editor whose high literary taste has, throughout his or her career, contributed significantly to the excellence of the publication he or she edits.

JUDGES: Christopher Castellani, Carmela Ciuraru, and Bill Clegg

PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation: For a translator whose career has demonstrated a commitment to excellence through the body of his or her work.

JUDGES: Selected by the PEN Translation Committee

PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants ($2,000-$4,000): To support the translation of book-length works into English.

JUDGES: Esther Allen, Mitzi Angel, Peter Blackstock, Howard Goldblatt, Sara Khalili, Michael F. Moore*, Declan Spring, and Alex Zucker (*Voting Chair of the PEN/Heim Advisory Board)