PEN America is thrilled to announce the Longlists for the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards. Our Awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning writers, editors, translators, and critics. You can learn more about this year’s judges here.
This year’s Awards will confer over $330,000 to writers and translators whose exceptional literary works were published in 2019. Spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, translation, and more, these longlisted books are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of literary excellence.
Finalists for all Book Awards, including the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and our Career Achievement Awards, will be announced in January 2020.
The Winners will be celebrated live at the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on March 2 at the Town Hall in New York City and hosted by Seth Meyers.
PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT SHORT STORY COLLECTION ($25,000)
To an author whose debut collection of short stories represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise for future work.
Judges: Aimee Bender, Jamel Brinkley, Samantha Hunt, Randa Jarrar, Elissa Schappell
Spider Love Song and Other Stories, Nancy Au (Acre Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
Avery Colt is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar, Ron A. Austin (Southeast Missouri State University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Trojan War Museum, Ayşe Papatya Bucak (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sabrina & Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine (One World)
IndieBound | Hudson
Last of Her Name, Mimi Lok (Kaya Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Not Dead Yet and Other Stories, Hadley Moore (Autumn House Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Beadworkers, Beth Piatote (Counterpoint Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Rapture Index: A Suburban Bestiary, Molly Reid (BOA Editions)
IndieBound | Hudson
Home Remedies, Xuan Juliana Wang (Hogarth)
IndieBound | Hudson
Lot, Bryan Washington (Riverhead Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL ($25,000)
To a debut novel of exceptional literary merit by an American author.
Judges: R.O. Kwon, Terese Marie Mailhot, David L. Ulin
The Gone Dead, Chanelle Benz (Ecco)
IndieBound | Hudson
Stay and Fight, Madeline ffitch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
Reinhardt’s Garden, Mark Haber (Coffee House Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
99 Nights in Logar, Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
IndieBound | Hudson
Big Familia, Tomas Moniz (Acre Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Travelers, Regina Porter (Hogarth)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Affairs of the Falcóns, Melissa Rivero (Ecco)
IndieBound | Hudson
A Prayer for Travelers, Ruchika Tomar (Riverhead Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Far Field, Madhuri Vijay (Grove Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD ($5,000)
To an exceptional book-length work of any genre by an author of color.
Judges: Ali Eteraz, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Dawn Lundy Martin, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Camille Rankine, Héctor Tobar
The 44th of July, Jaswinder Bolina (Omnidawn)
IndieBound | Hudson
King of Joy, Richard Chiem (Soft Skull Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
My Time Among the Whites, Jennine Capó Crucet (Picador)
IndieBound | Hudson
Build Yourself a Boat, Camonghne Felix (Haymarket Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
Be Recorder, Carmen Giménez Smith (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Good Talk, Mira Jacob (One World)
IndieBound | Hudson
Erou, Maya Phillips (Four Way Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
while they sleep (under the bed is another country), Raquel Salas Rivera (Birds, LLC)
IndieBound | Hudson
We Cast a Shadow, Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Grave on the Wall, Brandon Shimoda (City Lights Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN Translation Prize ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of prose from any language into English.
Judges: Sean Gasper Bye, Jim Hicks, Geoffrey C. Howes, Sara Khalili, Elizabeth Lowe, Jenny McPhee
When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back: Carl’s Book, Naja Marie Aidt (Coffee House Press)
Translated from the Danish by Denise Newman
IndieBound | Hudson
If You Cross the River: A Novel, Geneviève Damas (Milkweed Editions)
Translated from the French by Jody Gladding
IndieBound | Hudson
Happiness, as Such, Natalia Ginzburg (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the Italian by Minna Zallman Proctor
IndieBound | Hudson
The Ten Loves of Nishino, Hiromi Kawakami (Europa Editions)
Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
IndieBound | Hudson
Beyond Babylon, Igiaba Scego (Two Lines Press)
Translated from the Italian by Aaron Robertson
IndieBound | Hudson
The Dead Wander in the Desert, Rollan Seisenbayev (Amazon Crossing)
Translated from the Russian by Olga Nakston and John Farndon
IndieBound | Hudson
Flowers of Mold & Other Stories, Ha Seong-nan (Open Letter Books)
Translated from the Korean by Janet Hong
IndieBound | Hudson
At Dusk, Hwang Sok-yong (Scribe US)
Translated from the Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
IndieBound | Hudson
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel, Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books)
Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
IndieBound | Hudson
The Scent of Buenos Aires: Stories, Hebe Uhart (Archipelago Books)
Translated from the Spanish by Maureen Shaughnessy
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN AWARD FOR POETRY IN TRANSLATION ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English.
Judges: Michael Eskin, Forrest Gander, Pierre Joris
Time, Etel Adnan (Nightboat Books)
Translated from the French by Sarah Riggs
IndieBound | Hudson
Final Matters: Selected Poems, 2004-2010, Szilárd Borbély (Princeton University Press)
Translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet
IndieBound | Hudson
Poems in Absentia & Poems from The Island and the World, Pedro da Silveira (Tagus Press)
Translated from the Portuguese by George Monteiro
IndieBound | Hudson
Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish Language, Sebastián de Covarrubias Horozco (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the Spanish by Janet Hendrickson
IndieBound | Hudson
Room in Rome, Jorge Eduardo Eielson (Cardboard House Press)
Translated from the Spanish by David Shook
IndieBound | Hudson
Daybook 1918: Early Fragments, J.V. Foix (Northwestern University Press)
Translated from the Catalan by Lawrence Venuti
IndieBound | Hudson
Killing Plato, Chantal Maillard (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert
IndieBound | Hudson
The Winter Garden Photograph, Reina María Rodríguez (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen
IndieBound | Hudson
Songs from a Single Eye, Oswald von Wolkenstein (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the German by Richard Sieburth
IndieBound | Hudson
What We Live For, What We Die For: Selected Poems, Serhiy Zhadan (Yale University Press)
Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000)
For a collection of essays which exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.
Judges: Jelani Cobb, Daniel Menaker, Judith Thurman
Anxious Attachments, Beth Alvarado (Autumn House Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz, Eve Babitz (New York Review Books Classics)
IndieBound | Hudson
Essays One, Lydia Davis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio’s Natural Landscape, Deborah Fleming (Kent State University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Make It Scream, Make It Burn: Essays, Leslie Jamison (Little, Brown and Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Ecstasy and Terror: From the Greeks to Game of Thrones, Daniel Mendelsohn (New York Review Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution, Emily Nussbaum (Random House)
IndieBound | Hudson
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino (Random House)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, Esmé Weijun Wang (Graywolf Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays, Damon Young (Ecco)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY ($5,000)
For a distinguished biography of exceptional literary, narrative, and artistic merit, based on scrupulous research.
Judges: David W. Blight, Yunte Huang, Miriam Pawel, Rebecca Walker, Shawn Wen
Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas, Stephen Budiansky (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures, Adina Hoffman (Yale University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth, Josh Levin (Little, Brown and Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Lost Prince: A Search for Pat Conroy, Michael Mewshaw (Counterpoint Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Sontag: Her Life and Work, Benjamin Moser (Ecco)
IndieBound | Hudson
Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian, Sato Moughalian (Stanford University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, Sonia Purnell (Viking)
IndieBound | Hudson
Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West, John Taliaferro (Liveright)
IndieBound | Hudson
Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution, Helen Zia (Ballantine Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD ($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.
Judges: Diane Ackerman, Rivka Galchen, Priyamvada Natarajan
The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson (Doubleday)
IndieBound | Hudson
Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition, Patricia S. Churchland (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves, Frans de Waal (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience, Michael S. A. Graziano (W. W. Norton & Company)
IndieBound | Hudson
On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden, Elizabeth Hennessy (Yale University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption, Dahr Jamail (New Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains, Joseph LeDoux (Viking)
IndieBound | Hudson
Hot Carbon: Carbon 14 and a Revolution in Science, John F. Marra (Columbia University Press)
IndieBound | Hudson
Losing Earth: A Recent History, Nathaniel Rich (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
IndieBound | Hudson
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells (Tim Duggan Books)
IndieBound | Hudson
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