PEN Open Book Award

Created by PEN America’s Open Book Committee, a group committed to racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, the PEN Open Book Award invites submissions of books by authors of color. Works of fiction, literary nonfiction, essay collections, biography/memoir, poetry, and other works of literary character are strongly encouraged.

The award confers a $10,000 prize upon an author of color who has not received wide media attention, prior to the submitted book’s publication. The winner additionally receives a fully-funded artists’ residency at Civitella Ranieri, located in a 15th century castle in rural Umbria, Italy.

All winners, finalists, and longlisted books are eligible to receive PEN America’s official emblems. If you are a publisher interested in obtaining a PEN America award emblem for use on a book cover, please write to [email protected].

For more information about PEN America’s Literary Awards, please visit our FAQ.

2026 Winner

PEN Beyond Margins Award Winners

Formerly known as the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, the prize recognized African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, Latino, and Native American authors who had not received wide media coverage.

Previous Winners

2010
Sherwin Bitsui, Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press)
Robin D.G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press)
Canyon Sam, Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History (University of Washington Press)

2009
Uwem Akpan, Say You’re One of Them (Back Bay Books)
Juan Felipe Herrera, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press)
Lily Hoang, Changing (Fairy Tale Review Press)

2008
Chris Abani, Song for Night (Akashic Books)
Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out and the Gone (Akashic Books)
Frances Hwang, Transparency (Back Bay Books)
Naeem Murr, The Perfect Man (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Joseph M. Marshall III, The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn (Penguin Books)

2007
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (Anchor)
Ernest Hardy, Blood Beats, Vol. 1 (Redbone Press)
Harryette Mullen, Recyclopedia (Graywolf Press)
Alberto Ríos, Theater of Night (Copper Canyon Press)

2006
Richard Blanco, Directions to the Beach of the Dead (University of Arizona Press)
Andrew Lam, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora (Heyday)
Ed-Bok Lee, Real Karaoke People (New Rivers Press)
Caryl Phillips, Dancing in the Dark (Vintage)
Jennifer Tseng, The Man With My Face (The Asian American Writers’ Workshop)

2005
Faith Adiele, Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun (W. W. Norton & Company)
Raquel Cepeda, editor And It Don’t Stop: The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years (Faber & Faber)
Lan Samantha Chang, Inheritance (W. W. Norton & Company)
Lolita Hernandez, Autopsy of an Engine, and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant (Coffee House Press)
Ishle Yi Park, The Temperature of This Water (Kaya/Muae)

2004
Laila Halaby, West of the Jordan: A Novel (Beacon Press)
Suki Kim, The Interpreter (Picador)
Nasdijj, The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping (Ballantine Books)
Willie Perdomo, Smoking Lovely (Rattapallax Press)
April Reynolds, Knee-Deep in Wonder: A Novel (Metropolitan Books)

2002
Meena Alexander, Illiterate Heart (Triquarterly Books)
Luis Francia, Eye of the Fish (Kaya Press)
Joy Harjo, A Map to the Next World: Poetry and Tales (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Victor LaValle, Slapboxing with Jesus: Stories (Vintage Books)
Nelly Rosario, Song of the Water Saints (Pantheon Books)

Eligibility

• A candidate’s work must have been published in the United States by a trade publisher during the current calendar year.
• Eligible books must be written by a single, living author in English.
• The PEN Open Book Award is open to authors of color who have not received wide media coverage prior to the submitted book’s publication. If you have a question regarding the author’s media coverage, please email [email protected].
• Works of literary character in any genre including fiction, literary nonfiction, biography/memoir, poetry, and essay collections are accepted.
• U.S. residency or citizenship is NOT required.
• Self-published books are not eligible.

Submission Guidelines

• All submitted books must be published by a trade or academic publisher between January 1 and December 31 of the current year. Self-published books are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
• Books with more than one original author are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
• PEN America will only accept submissions from publishers or literary agents. Authors may not submit their own books.
• Please be sure to select the award you are submitting to on the submission form.
• Submitting a book for multiple awards is allowed only in the case of the PEN Open Book Award. Please complete a separate submission for this award if applicable.
• Please submit verified email addresses on the submission form. Your order cannot be processed without an email address. Multiple addresses are essential so that we can get in touch directly if an author or translator is selected as a longlister, finalist, or winner.
• Upload a PDF file of the galley or final manuscript to the book submission form. Book award submissions will be read as PDF files. Please upload the file saved as BOOKTITLE_AUTHORNAME. For the judges’ ease of reading, please upload a book file WITHOUT watermarks. Each book file will remain confidential and is accessible only to the Literary Awards team and the awards judges. Please note that if a book is longlisted, PEN America may request physical copies for the judging panel.
• Upload a high-resolution image of the book cover. This will be used if the book is a longlister, finalist, or winner.
• Each submission is $85. Submission fees are not refundable. Please note that all payments must be made via the submission form.
• Submission fees may be waived for publishers whose annual net sales are less than $2 million. You may request an exemption here; a letter on company letterhead stating that the press’s annual net sales are less than $2 million is required. Do not submit your title before requesting your fee exemption, as the Literary Awards Team will provide you with an alternative submission method.
• Once a submitted book is received and reviewed for eligibility by PEN America, it will be passed along to the judges. Please add [email protected] to your address book, as it will be the main point of contact from PEN America.