PEN American Center inactive awards

Awards presented by the PEN American Center (today PEN America) that are no longer active.

The awards are among many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN in over 145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" American literary prizes.[1]

## PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (1987–2015)

[edit]

The PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award[2] was an award that honored writers anywhere in the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression.[3] Established in 1987, the award was administered by PEN American Center and underwritten by PEN trustee Barbara Goldsmith. The last award was in 2015; its successor is PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, established in 2016 and honoring writers who were imprisoned for their work.

### Winners

[edit]

PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award winner  Year  | Winner  | Country  | Ref.

|
|
|

1987 | Nizametdin Akhmetov | Soviet Union  |
Matsemela Manaka | South Africa  |
1988 | Maina wa Kinyatti | Kenya  |
Pramoedya Ananta Toer | Indonesia  |
1989 | Martha Kumsa | Ethiopia  |
Nguyễn Chí Thiện | Vietnam  |
1990 | Bei Dao | China  |
Jack Mapanje | Malawi  |
1991 | Abraham Serfaty | Morocco  |
Francisco Valencia | El Salvador  |
1992 | Jean Mario Paul | Haiti  |
Thiagarajah Selvanithy (“Selvi”)  | Sri Lanka  |
1993 | Zoran Mutic | Bosnia  |
Nizar Nayouf | Syria  |
Svetlana Slapšak | Serbia  |
1994 | Đoàn Viết Hoạt | Vietnam  |
Edip Polat | Turkey  |
1995 | Yndamiro Restano Díaz | Cuba  |
San San Nweh  | Myanmar (Burma)  |
1996 | Ma Thida | Myanmar (Burma)  |
Anonymous  | Africa  |
1997 | Godwin Agbroko | Nigeria  |
Ayşe Nur Zarakolu | Turkey  |
1998 | Ogaga Ifowodo | Nigeria  |
Liu Jingsheng | China  |
1999 | Faraj Bayrakdar | Syria  |
Esber Yagmurdereli | Turkey  |
2000 | Flora Brovina | Kosovo  |
Xue Deyun | China  |
2001 | Shahla Lahiji | Iran  |
Mamadali Mahmudov | Uzbekistan  |
2002 | Aung Myint | Myanmar (Burma)  |
Tohti Tunyaz | Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China  |
2003 | Bernardo Arévalo Padrón | Cuba  |
Zouhair Yahyaoui | Tunisia  |
2004 | Lê Chi Quang | Vietnam  |
Nasser Zarafshan | Iran  |
2005 | Ali Al-Domaini | Saudi Arabia  |
Deyda Hydara | Gambia  |
2006 | Mohammad Benchicou | Algeria  |
Rakhim Esenov | Turkmenistan  |
2007 | Normando Hernández González | Cuba  |
2008 | Yang Tongyan | China  |
2009 | Liu Xiaobo | China  |
2010 | Nay Phone Latt | Burma  |
2011 | Nasrin Sotoudeh | Iran  |
2012 | Eskinder Nega | Ethiopia  | [4]
2013 | Ayşe Berktay | Turkey  | [5][6]
2014 | Ilham Tohti | Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China  | [7][8]
2015 | Khadija Ismayilova | Azerbaijan  | [9]
2018 | Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo | Myanmar  | [10]

## PEN/Steven Kroll Award (2012–2014)

[edit]

The PEN/Steven Kroll Award[11] was awarded by the PEN American Center "to acknowledge the distinct literary contributions of picture book writers."[12] Established in memory of Steven Kroll, a former PEN Trustee and Chair of PEN's Children's/Young Adult Book Authors Committee, this honor was awarded for the first time in 2012 for a book published in 2011.[13][14] The last award was given in 2014.

### Winners

[edit]

PEN/Steven Kroll Award winners  Year  | Author  | Title  | Ref.

|
|
|

2012 | Patricia C. McKissack | Never Forgotten |
2013 | Michelle Markel | The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau | [15]
2014 | Bil Lepp | The King of Little Things | [16][17]

## PEN/W.G. Sebald Award (2010–2011)

[edit]

The PEN/W.G. Sebald Award for a Fiction Writer in Mid-Career was awarded by the PEN American Center to honor a promising writer who has published three works of fiction.[18]

### Winners

[edit]

PEN/W.G. Sebald Award winners  Year  | Author  | Ref.

|
|

2010 | Susan Choi | [19]
2011 | Aleksander Hemon | [20]

## PEN Emerging Writers Awards (2011)

[edit]

The PEN Emerging Writers Awards was awarded by the PEN American Center. It was awarded to up-and-coming authors whose writing had been featured in distinguished literary journals, but had not published book-length works.[21] Three prizes were awarded: one fiction, one nonfiction, and one poetry. Candidates were nominated only by editors from print and online journals. Participating journals for 2011 included: 6 x 6, A Public Space, Bloom, Colorado Review, Creative Nonfiction, Fence, Gargoyle, Glimmer Train, Guernica, Harvard Review, jubilat, Kenyon Review, Lungfull!, New York Quarterly, One Story, The Oxford American, Ploughshares, Rain Taxi, Spinning Jenny, and Tin House.

### Winners

[edit]

PEN Emerging Writers Awards winners  Year  | Category  | Author  | Ref.

|
|
|

2011 | Fiction  | Adam Day | [22]
Poetry  | Smith Henderson | [22]
Nonfiction  | David Stuart McLean | [22]

## PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award (2000)

[edit]

The PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award was given to unpublished writers who submit original short story manuscripts. Each manuscript competed for a $10,000 cash grant and publication at Amazon.com and in The Boston Book Review. Award was active for one year.[23][24]

## Architectural Digest Award for Literary Writing on the Visual Arts (2000–2001)

[edit]

The Architectural Digest Award for Literary Writing on the Visual Arts was presented for literary writing on the visual arts.[25][26] It was active two years 2000–2001.

## Gregory Kolovakos Award (1992–2004)

[edit]

The Gregory Kolovakos Award[27] was a literary award given every three years by PEN American Center to a U.S. literary translator, editor, or critic "whose work, in meeting the challenge of cultural difference, extends Gregory Kolovakos's commitment to the richness of Hispanic literature and to expanding its English-language audience". It was primarily intended to recognize translations into English from Spanish, but translations from other Hispanic languages were also eligible. Gregory Kolovakos was a graduate of Yale University and served as the director of the Literature Program of the New York State Council on the Arts for many years. He was also the founding executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in 1985. The monetary amount of the Award was USD $2000. The prize was first given in 1992.

### Winners

[edit]

Gregory Kolovakos Award winners  Year  | Author

|

1992 | Eliot Weinberger
1998 | Johannes Wilbert
2001 | Gregory Rabassa
Alastair Reid
2004 | Cola Franzen
Robert M. Laughlin
Alexander Taylor

## Jerard Fund Award (2001–2005)

[edit]

The Jerard Fund Award honored a work in progress of general nonfiction distinguished by high literary quality by a woman at the midpoint in her career. Presented every 2 years, it was active from 2001 to 2005.[28]

## Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir (1998–2006)

[edit]

The Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir was presented for a first published memoir. It was active from 1998 to 2006.[29]

## Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction (1989–2006)

[edit]

The Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction was presented for an American author's first-published book of general nonfiction. It was active from 1989 to 2006.[30]

## PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award (1993–2006)

[edit]

The PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award was an award presented annually from 1993 to 2006 to a U.S. resident who "fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word."[31] Sponsored by PEN American Center and Newman's Own, a cash prize of $20,000 was awarded. It was active from 1993 to 2006.

### Winners

[edit]

PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award winners  Year  | Author  | Description  | Ref.

|
|
|

1993 | Claudia Johnson | Restored literary classics—including Steinbeck, Chaucer, and Aristophanes—that had been banned from Florida classrooms; defended student production of A Raisin in the Sun. Patricia Lightweis fought targeted obscenity charges brought against her for books and magazines carried at her store in South Carolina.  |
1994 | Carole Marlowe | Arizona drama teacher who resisted district censorship of a play selected for student production.  |
1995 | Joyce Meskis | Denver bookstore owner who successfully challenged a Colorado law barring stores open to children from selling novels and art books with sexual content, and who continued to sell Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in 1989, donating 25% of proceeds to anticensorship organizations.  |
1996 | Cissy Lacks | Missouri high school Creative Writing teacher fired for "failure to censor her students' creative expression."  |
1997 | Nancy Hsu Fleming | Defeated a corporation's attempt to silence her written concerns about possible groundwater contamination caused by a local landfill.  |
1998 | Terrilyn Simpson | Maine writer and journalist harassed for her attempts to cover local industrial health hazards.  |
1999 | Releah Lent | Florida high school teacher and student newspaper advisor who has struggled to defend literature in the classroom and press freedom for students.  |
2000 | William Holda | President, Kilgore College, who defended the production of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America in Kilgore, Texas.  |
2001 | Deloris Wilson | High school librarian in West Monroe, Louisiana who fought to preserve access to library materials banned for sexual content.  | [32]
Alberto Sarrain | Cuban-émigré theater producer who challenged Miami-Dade County's ban on public funding to arts organizations performing work by artists currently living in Cuba.  | [32]
2002 | Vanessa Leggett | Freelance writer who was jailed in a federal detention center in Texas for 168 days for refusing to bow to a sweeping subpoena of confidential source materials.  |
2003 | Jerilynn Adams Williams | Texas librarian who successfully turned back an attempt to remove books from circulation at Montgomery County public libraries.  |
2004 | Barbara Parsons Lane | One of eight incarcerated writers who were sued by the State of Connecticut after contributing to Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters, a moving anthology of stories and essays by women who participated in a creative writing workshop led by Wally Lamb at York Correctional Institute.  |
2005 | Joan Airoldi | Librarian and library director in rural Washington state who challenged an FBI effort to search patron records under the Library Awareness Program.  | [33]
2006 | Sibel Edmonds | Translator who was fired from her job at the FBI after complaining of intelligence failures and poor performance in her unit.  |

## PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award (2008)

[edit]

The PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award was presented for only one year. It was meant to given to a U.S. resident "who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word."[34] Sponsored by PEN American Center and Katherine Anne Porter Foundation, the award included a cash prize of US$10,000. The award succeeded the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award which was last awarded in 2006. The award was given in 2008 only.

### Winner

[edit]

Year  | Author  | Description  | Ref.

|
|
|

2008 | Laura Berg | Psychiatric nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital who faced an investigation into possible charges of sedition when she wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper which was critical of George W. Bush.  | [35]

## Renato Poggioli Translation Award (1991–2000)

[edit]

The Renato Poggioli Translation Award was for a translator at work on an English-language version of Italian literature. Active from 1991 to c. 2000.[36]

## Roger Klein Award for Career Achievement (1971–2000)

[edit]

The Roger Klein Award for Career Achievement was presented to a trade book editor every two years for "distinguished editorial achievement." It was active from 1971 to c. 2000.[37] |To a trade book editor every two years for "distinguished editorial achievement."[38]

## Roger Klein Award for Editing

[edit]

The Roger Klein Award for Editing was an honor "given [every two years] to an outstanding editor in trade hardcover publishing."[39] It was active from 1971 to c. 2000.[40]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Alfred Bendixen (2005). "Literary Prizes and Awards". The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 689\. ISBN 9780826417770. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
2. ^ "PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on March 18, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
3. ^ "Freedom to Write". Barbara Goldsmith. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
4. ^ Spielmann, Peter James (May 2, 2012). "PEN honors jailed Ethiopian journalist". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
5. ^ "Top PEN Prize to jailed Turkish translator, writer and activist Ayşe Berktay". European Council of Literary Translators' Associations. April 18, 2013. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
6. ^ "Jailed Translator Receives PEN Prize". Bianet. April 16, 2013. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
7. ^ "Tohti to Receive PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award". Publishers Weekly. March 31, 2014. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
8. ^ "China angered as detained Uighur academic wins rights prize". Reuters. April 1, 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
9. ^ David M. Herszenhorn (April 15, 2015). "Jailed Azerbaijani Journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, to Be Honored by PEN". New York Times. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
10. ^ "2018 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo". February 13, 2018. Archived from the original on November 20, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
11. ^ "PEN/Steven Kroll Award". PEN American Center. October 16, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
12. ^ "PEN American Center Literary Awards". Archived from the original on June 27, 2012.
13. ^ "PEN/Steven Kroll Award Announced". Publishers Weekly. May 19, 2011. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
14. ^ "PEN American Center Establishes Steven Kroll Award". School Library Journal. May 20, 2011. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
15. ^ Carolyn Kellogg (August 14, 2013). "Jacket Copy: PEN announces winners of its 2013 awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 16, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
16. ^ "2014 PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing". PEN America. April 16, 2014. Archived from the original on July 12, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
17. ^ Ron Charles (July 30, 2014). "Winners of the 2014 PEN Literary Awards". Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
18. ^ "PEN/W. G. Sebald Award for a Fiction Writer in Mid-Career". December 18, 2014. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
19. ^ PATRICIA COHEN (September 24, 2010). "ARTSBEAT; PEN Presents Awards". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
20. ^ Stacey Mickelbart (August 11, 2011). "The 2011 PEN Honorees in The New Yorker". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 9, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
21. ^ "PEN American Center Literary Awards". Archived from the original on June 27, 2012.
22. ^ a b c "Jacket Copy: PEN American Center's 2011 award winners". LA Times. August 11, 2011. Archived from the original on December 10, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
23. ^ "PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award Introduced". The Write News. February 9, 2009. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
24. ^ "PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
25. ^ CELIA MCGEE (November 12, 2012). "Mehta Merge Master at Knopf". New York Daily News. Retrieved August 29, 2012.[dead link]
26. ^ "Architectural Digest Award for Literary Writing on the Visual Arts Winners". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
27. ^ "PEN American Center - Gregory Kolovakos Award". October 30, 2005. Archived from the original on October 30, 2005.
28. ^ "Jerard Fund Award". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
29. ^ "Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on December 20, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
30. ^ "Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
31. ^ "PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award recipient announced". PEN American Center. April 5, 2004. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
32. ^ a b "Ordinary Heroes: Two ACLU Clients to Receive the 2001 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award". American Civil Liberties Union. April 20, 2001. Archived from the original on August 14, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
33. ^ Airoldi, Joan (May 17, 2005). "Librarian's brush with FBI shapes her view of the USA Patriot Act". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
34. ^ "V.A. Nurse to Receive 2008 PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award". PEN American Center. April 11, 2008. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
35. ^ Times editors (April 27, 2008). "Laura Berg's Letter". New York Times. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2012. `{{cite news}}`: `|author=` has generic name (help)
36. ^ "Renato Poggioli Translation Award". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
37. ^ "Roger Klein Award for Career Achievement". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012.
38. ^ "Willen Wins PEN/Klein Award". Publishers Weekly. February 22, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
39. ^ "P.E.N. Awards Given To 2 Publishing Figures". New York Times. November 27, 1984. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
40. ^ "Roger Klein Award for Editing Winners". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.

*[c.]: circa