The 2022 PEN America literary awards winners were announced last week. The announcement ceremony was held at The Town Hall in New York City and hosted by Seth Meyers.
This award program was initiated in 1963, and since then, it has come thus far, honouring outstanding voices in fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, biography, children’s literature, translation, drama, and more. With the help of generous partners and supporters, this year PEN America offered over 20 distinct juried awards, grants, and prizes, awarding more than $350,000 to more than 40 writers and translators.
Jean Stein book award
This year’s Pen/Jean Stein book award went to ‘The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease’ by Daisy Hernández (Tin House Books). This award is given to a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence. This year’s value of the prize was $75,000.
There are four finalists for the award: ‘The President and The Frog’ by Carolina De Robertis (published by Knopf), ‘The Trees: A Novel’ by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press), ‘Milk Blood Heat’ by Dantiel W. Moniz (Grove Press) and ‘Harrow’ by Joy Williams (Knopf).
The judges of the category were Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Angie Cruz, Maurice Manning and Steph Opitz.
Open Book Award
This award is given to an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of colour. So the winner is ‘Curb’ by Divya Victor (Nightboat Books) who received $10,000 Prize money with the award. The finalists are ‘Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts’ by Rebecca Hall (Simon & Schuster), ‘Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir’ by Rajiv Mohabir (Restless Books), ‘Names for Light: A Family History’ by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint (Graywolf Press), and ‘White Magic’ by Elissa Washuta (Tin House Books).
The judges were Jaquira Díaz, Rigoberto González, Sequoia Nagamatsu, Khadijah Queen.
Prize for debut Short Story Collection
The winner is ‘Skinship: Stories’ by Yoon Choi (Knop), while the finalists are ‘Eat the Mouth That Feeds You’ by Carribean Fragoza (City Lights Books), ‘Milk Blood Heat’ by Dantiel W. Moniz (Grove Press), ‘Objects of Desire: Stories’ by Clare Sestanovich (Knopf), and ‘Give My Love to the Savages: Stories’ by Chris Stuck (Amistad Press).
The judges include Ling Ma, Manuel Muñoz, Oscar Villalon, and $25,000 Prize money was offered for the winner.
Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
The winner is ‘Detransition, Baby: A Novel’ by Torrey Peters (MCD) who received $10,000 Prize money. The finalists include ‘Burnt Sugar’ by Avni Doshi (The Overlook Press), ‘Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel’ by Carolyn Ferrell (Henry Holt & Company), ‘The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Novel’ by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper), and ‘The Five Wounds: A Novel’ by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W.W. Norton & Company). The judges are comprised of Zeyn Joukhadar, Téa Obreht and Daniel Torday.
Award for the Art of the Essay
This is named as Diamonstein – Spielvogel Award which is given to a seasoned writer whose collection of essays is an expansion on their corpus of work and preserves the distinguished art form of the essay. The winner is ‘Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South’ by Margaret Renkl (sMilkweed Editions) who was awarded $15,000 prize money.
The finalists are ‘A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance’ by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House), ‘Homo Irrealis: Essays’ by André Aciman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), ‘Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time’ by Teju Cole (University of Chicago Press), and ‘These Precious Days: Essays’ by Ann Patchett (Harper). The judges included Jason DeParle, Hua Hsu and Marilynne Robinson.
Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection
This year’s poetry award winner is ‘frank: sonnets’ by Diane Seuss (Graywolf Press) who was offered $5,000 Prize money. The finalists are ‘Yellow Rain: Poems’ by Mai Der Vang (Graywolf Press), ‘Sho’ by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books), ‘Heard-Hoard’ by Atsuro Riley (University of Chicago Press), and ‘Mutiny’ by Phillip B. Williams (Penguin Books).
This year’s judges were Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Lia Purpura and Safiya Sinclair.
Pen Award for Poetry in Translation
This is offered for a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English, and the winner of the year is ‘Everything I Don’t Know’ by Jerzy Ficowski (World Poetry Books), which was translated from the Polish by Jennifer Grotz and Piotr Sommer who bagged $3,000 Prize money.
The finalists are ‘Exhausted on the Cross’ by Najwan Darwish (New York Review Books), which translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid; ‘I Name Him Me: Selected Poems of Ma Yan’ by Ma Yan (Ugly Duckling Presse), translated from the Chinese by Stephen Nashef; ‘Outgoing Vessel’ by Ursula Andkjær Olsen (Action Books), translated from the Danish by Katrine Øgaard Jensen; ‘Ova Completa’ by Susana Thénon (Ugly Duckling Presse), translated from Spanish by Rebekah Smith.
The category was judged by Caro Carter, Michael Favala Goldman and Parisa Saranj.
Pen Translation Prize
This is offered to a book-length translation of prose from any language into English. And the winning book is ‘Migratory Birds’ by Mariana Oliver (Transit Books), translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches who received $3,000 Prize money.
The finalists are ‘FEM’ by Magda Cârneci (Deep Vellum), translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter; ‘New Year’ by Juli Zeh (World Editions), translated from the German by Alta L. Price; ‘The Last One: A Novel’ by Fatima Daas (Other Press), translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud; ‘Kaya Days: A Novel’ by Carl de Souza (Two Line Press), which was translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman. The award was judged by Almiro Andrade, Mayada Ibrahim, Barbara Ofosu-Somuah and Sharon E. Rhodes.
E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
This prize is awarded for a work that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience. The winner is ‘An Fox & I: Uncommon Friendship’ by Catherine Raven (Spiegel & Grau) who bagged $10,000 Prize money. The finalists were ‘The Memory Thief: And the Secrets Behind What We Remember — A Medical Mystery’ by Lauren Aguirre (Pegasus Books), ‘The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred’ by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (Bold Type Books), ‘Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World’ by Lisa Wells (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and ‘Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive’ by Carl Zimmer (Dutton Books).
The judges were Jonathan Safran Foer, Michele Harper and Lauren Redniss.
Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
The award is given to a biography of exceptional literary, narrative, and artistic merit, based on scrupulous research, and the winner is ‘All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler’ by Rebecca Donner (Little Brown and Company) who received $5,000 Prize money.
The finalists include ‘The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Quest to End Deafness’ by Katie Booth (Simon & Schuster), ‘Albert and the Whale: Albrecht Dürer and How Art Imagines Our World’ by Phillip Hoare (Pegasus Books), ‘The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky’ by Andrew D. Kaufman (Riverhead Books), and ‘Orwell’s Roses’ by Rebecca Solnit (Viking).
The judges included Luke Dittrich, Paul Golob, Imani Perry.
John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
The award is offered for a distinguished book of general nonfiction published, possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues. The winner is ‘All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family’s Keepsake’ by Tiya Miles (Random House) who was awarded with $10,000 Prize money.
The finalists are ‘Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City’ by Andrea Elliott (Random House), ‘Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration’ Reuben Jonathan Miller (Little Brown and Company), ‘Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993’ by Sarah Schulman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and ‘How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America’ by Clint Smith (Little Brown and Company)
The judges of the category were Emma Copley Eisenberg, Dr. K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Chanel Miller, Dagmawi Woubshet.