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Three Poems
With PEN’s Poetry Relay, a series of readings and conversations, we hope to trace the topography of influence that connects contemporary poets to their peers and predecessors. The relay… More
A Good Dude
The whites are loosely arranged by hometown and run together as a car, or collective. It’s like a gang, but with no real structure. White power inmates largely call… More
Seven Thousand Yesterdays
Robert Earl was 64 years old, whip thin and frail-looking, though he was still in pretty decent shape. He wasn’t stooped, but he had a weighed-down way of standing… More
Drums That Talk
Here was a messaging system that outpaced the best couriers, the fastest horses on good roads with way stations and relays. Earth-bound, foot-based messaging systems always disappointed. Their armies… More
2011 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
WinnerThe PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award celebrates writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences. The winner receives a cash award of… More
2011 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing
WinnerGeorge Dohrmann for Play Their Hearts Out (Ballantine Books)The $5,000 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing honors a nonfiction book about sports. Eligible titles should be of a biographical,… More
2009 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories
WinnersGraham Joyce, for “An Ordinary Soldier of the Queen”Kristen Sundberg Lundstrum, for "The Nursery"E.V. Slate, for "Purple Bamboo Park"John Burnside, for "The Bell Ringer"Mohan Sikka, for "Uncle Musto Takes… More
2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
WinnerThe 2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize was shared between two writers:Susanna Daniel for Stiltsville (Harper Perennial)Danielle Evans for Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (Riverhead)The PEN/Robert W. Bingham… More
2011 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award
WinnerRobert Perkinson, Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire (Metropolitan Books)The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award is a biennial award given to a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing… More