Everything You Should Know about PEN Literary Awards in 2018

If you are involved in the publishing sphere or just enjoy reading, then you know what the PEN Literary Awards is and what role it plays in the book world. The best writers of excellent new literature in fiction and various non-fiction categories are rewarded annually, and this year isn’t an exception to the rule. Although the names of the winners were named the other day, you should pay attention to all finalists.

This year finalists aren’t just a list of names and titles, you deal with extremely assorted and powerful writings that cover a wide range of issues. Along with the names of experienced writers you can find completely new faces that bring a breath of fresh air to your reading life. Such variety is one more thing that makes the PEN Literary Awards so peculiar.

The 2018 PEN Literary Awards has some distinctive features from the previous years. Besides annual Open Book Award that is given to the best authors of color, the two categories are initiated for minority authors. This year the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction list of finalists consists only of women, and in turn, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award list covers only authors of color.

So who are they – the winners and finalists of 2018? The most interesting and intriguing categories are listed below.

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award

• Winner – Whereas by Layli Long Soldier
• White Tears by Hari Kunzru
• We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists by Kevin Young
• The Changeling by Victor LaValle

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction

• Winner – Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
• Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi
• Black Jesus and Other Superheroes: Stories by Venita Blackburn
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
• History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

PEN Open Book Award

• Winner – A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men fighting Extremism in Africa by Alexis Okeowo
• My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir by Jessica B. Harris
• Augustown by Kei Miller
• Ordinary Beast: Poems by Nicole Sealey
• Lessons on Expulsion: Poems by Erika L. Sánchez

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

• Winner – No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin
• You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks & Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano
• Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London by Lauren Elkin
• Alpine Apprentice: A Memoir by Sarah Gorham
• Because It Is So Beautiful: Unraveling the Mystique of the American West by Robert Reid

PEN Translation Prize

• Winner – Katalin Street by Magda Szabó, translated by Len Rix
• The Book of Emma Reyes by Emma Reyes, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Alarcón
• A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
• Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Cost
• The Impossible Fairy Tale by Han Yujoo, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

• Winner – Richard Nixon: The Life by John Farrell
• Grant by Ron Chernow
• Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror by Victor Sebestyen
• Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson
• You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn by Wendy Lesser

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

• Winner – The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
• American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron
• Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David Montgomery
• No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron Powers
• Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports

• Winner – Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig
• The Arena: Inside the Tailgating, Ticket-Scalping, Mascot-Racing, Dubiously Funded, and Possibly Haunted Monuments of American Sport by Rafi Kohan
• Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. the United States of America, 1966–1971 by Leigh Montville
• City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles by Jerald Podair
• Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream by Joe Tone

A Little Bit about Ceremony

The celebration took place on February 20 and gathered a big number of talents in one place. The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards was traditionally hosted by PEN America. Despite the fact that the writers from different corners of our planet gathered to discuss books, it was impossible not to cover the politics. Many authors and guests, including Sally Kohn, Barbara Harshav, Patrick Steigman, and Jonathan Eig, shared their views on various actions of the White House, thereby confirming the power of the word.