PEN America is honored to announce the Longlists for the 2024 Literary Awards. Our Awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning authors, editors, translators, and critics. These authors are committed to recognizing their contemporaries, from promising debut writers to those who have had a continuous, lasting impact on the literary landscape.
The 2024 Literary Awards will confer over $350,000 to writers and translators. Spanning fiction, poetry, translation, and more, these Longlisted books are dynamic, diverse, and thought-provoking examples of literary excellence.
Finalists for the following awards will be announced before the ceremony. Stay tuned for more and join us at the 2024 Literary Awards Ceremony on April 29!
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award ($75,000)
To a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.
Judges: Lupita Aquino, Álvaro Enrigue, Michael Schaub, Tess Taylor
Soil, Camille T. Dungy (Simon & Schuster)
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Biography of X, Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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Poem Bitten by a Man, Brian Teare (Nightboat Books)
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Sink, Joseph Earl Thomas (Grand Central Publishing)
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Blackouts, Justin Torres (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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From From, Monica Youn (Graywolf Press)
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author: Hangman by Maya Binyam on Bookshop, Dyscalculia by Camonghne Felix on Bookshop, Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe on Bookshop, The People Who Report More Stress by Alejandro Varela on Bookshop
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: Megan Cummins, Manuel Muñoz
Temple Folk, Aaliyah Bilal (Simon & Schuster)
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Boundless Deep, and Other Stories, Gen Del Raye (University of Nebraska Press)
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The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie (Torrey House Press)
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I Meant It Once: Stories, Kate Doyle (Algonquin Books)
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Mama Said: Stories, Kristen Gentry (West Virginia University Press)
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Welcome Me to the Kingdom, Mai Nardone (Random House)
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I Am My Country, Kenan Orhan (Random House)
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The Sorrows of Others, Ada Zhang (A Public Space)
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author: LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO by Cleo Qian on Bookshop, Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine on Bookshop
PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel ($10,000)
To a debut novel of exceptional literary merit.
Judges: Elizabeth Crane, Cleyvis Natera, Charlie Vázquez
Flux, Jinwoo Chong (Melville House Publishing)
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Dances, Nicole Cuffy (One World)
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The Skin and Its Girl, Sarah Cypher (Ballantine Books)
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Countries of Origin, Javier Fuentes (Pantheon Books)
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Promise, Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Random House)
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Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang (Dutton)
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American Gospel, Miah Jeffra (Black Lawrence Press)
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author: Hangman by Maya Binyam on Bookshop, What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez on Bookshop, Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas on Bookshop
PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection ($5,000)
To a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry represents a notable and accomplished literary presence.
Judges: Timothy Donnelly, Deborah Fleming, Rigoberto González, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Diane Seuss
A Film in Which I Play Everyone, Mary Jo Bang (Graywolf Press)
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The Boxer of Quirinal, John Barr (Red Hen Press)
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Console, Colin Channer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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Couplets, Maggie Millner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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suddenly we, Evie Shockley (Wesleyan University Press)
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Your Kingdom, Eleni Sikelianos (Coffee House Press)
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Poem Bitten by a Man, Brian Teare (Nightboat Books)
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From From, Monica Youn (Graywolf Press)
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author: Bianca by Eugenia Leigh on Bookshop, Trace Evidence by Charif Shanahan on Bookshop
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English.
Judges: Nancy Naomi Carlson, Matthias Göritz, Dorothy Bonett
Dreaming the Mountain, Tuệ Sỹ (Milkweed Editions)
Translated from the Vietnamese by Nguyen Ba Chung and Martha Collins
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The Blue House: Collected Works of Tomas Tranströmer, Tomas Tranströmer (Copper Canyon Press)
Translated from the Swedish by Patty Crane
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Old Songs, Olga Sedakova (Slant Books)
Translated from the Russian by Martha M. F. Kelly
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How Fire Descends, Serhiy Zhadan (Yale University Press)
Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps
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I Lived on the Battlefield of Poltava, Alexei Parshchikov (Cherry Orchard Books)
Translated from the Russian by Donald Wesling
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The Iliad, Homer (W. W. Norton & Company)
Translated from the Ancient Greek by Emily Wilson
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author/translator: Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi on Bookshop, The Poetic Garden of Liu Zongyuan by Liu Zongyuan translated from the Chinese by Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton and Yu Yuanyuan on Bookshop, Love Training by Andrés Neuman translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers on Bookshop, Tentacular Cities by Émile Verhaeren translated from the French by Jacob Siefring for purchase here
PEN Translation Prize ($3,000)
For a book-length translation of prose from any language into English.
Judges: Larissa Kyzer, Hanna Leliv, Parisa Saranj, Jenna Tang
Fowl Eulogies, Lucie Rico (World Editions)
Translated from the French by Daria Chernysheva
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The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, Stanislav Aseyev (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute)
Translated from the Ukrainian by Zenia Tompkins and Nina Murray
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Trash, Sylvia Aguilar-Zéleny (Deep Vellum)
Translated from the Spanish by J.D. Pluecker
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Sublunar, Harald Voetmann (New Directions Publishing)
Translated from the Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen
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The Premonition, Banana Yoshimoto (Counterpoint Press)
Translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author/translator: Owlish by Dorothy Tse translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce on Bookshop, The Story of the Paper Crown by Józef Czechowicz translated from the Polish by Frank Garrett for purchase here, The Details by Ia Genberg translated from the Swedish by Kira Josefsson on Bookshop, The Whore by Márcia Barbieri translated from the Portuguese by Adrian Minckley for purchase here, Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches on Bookshop
PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
To a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry represents a notable and accomplished literary presence.
Judges: David Blight, Ann McCutchan, James Traub
Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, Joseph Berger (Yale University Press)
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The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life, Clare Carlisle (Farrar Straus, and Giroux)
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King: A Life, Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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Madonna: A Rebel Life, Mary Gabriel (Little, Brown and Company)
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The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of the Bondwoman’s Narrative, Gregg Hecimovich (Ecco)
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Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite, Dean King (Scribner)
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The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys–and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy, James Risen (Little, Brown and Company)
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Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith, John Szwed (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
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Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, Judith Tick (W. W. Norton)
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The Wounded World: W. E. B. DuBois and the First World War, Chad Williams (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
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PEN/Open Book Award
To an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of color.
Judges: Medar de la Cruz, Jenn Givhan, Bonnie Tsui, Anna Malaika Tubbs, Jerald Walker, David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming, Ava Chin (Penguin Press)
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Fire Rush: A Novel, Jacqueline Crooks (Viking)
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They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us, Prachi Gupta (Crown)
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Pomegranate: A Novel, Helen Elaine Lee (Atria Books)
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Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm, David Mas Masumoto (Red Hen Press)
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The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts: A Novel, Soraya Palmer (Catapult)
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The Bandit Queens: A Novel, Parini Shroff (Ballantine Books)
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The following titles have been withdrawn from consideration at the request of the author: Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto on Bookshop, Dream of Xibalba by Stephanie Adams-Santos on Bookshop, Where There Was Fire: A Novel by John Manuel Arias on Bookshop.
PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award ($10,000)
For a work that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience.
Judges: Riley Black, Helen Ouyang, Jonathan Slaght
In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took on the US Army, Charles Barber (Grand Central Publishing)
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The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, Brad Fox (Astra House)
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Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Ben Goldfarb (W. W. Norton & Company)
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The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, Jeff Goodell (Little, Brown and Company)
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Womb: The Inside Story of How It All Began, Leah Hazard (Ecco)
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The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa, Jonathan B. Losos (Viking)
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Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark, Sarafina El-Badry Nance (Dutton)
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I Feel Love: Mdma and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, Rachel Nuwer (Bloomsbury Publishing)
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Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being, Neil Theise (Spiegel & Grau)
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California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline, Rosanna Xia (Heyday Books)
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PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($15,000)
For a seasoned writer whose collection of essays is an expansion on their corpus of work and preserves the distinguished art form of the essay.
Judges: David James Duncan, Colleen Kinder
Twenty Square Feet of Skin, Megan Baxter (Ohio State University Press)
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Touch the Future: A Manifesto in Essays, John Lee Clark (W. W. Norton & Company)
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The Beloved Republic, Steven Harvey (Wandering Aengus Press)
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Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook, Sonya Huber (Belt Publishing)
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A Word or Two Before I Go: Essays Then and Now, Arthur Krystal (University of Virginia Press)
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The Deadline: Essays, Jill Lepore (Liveright)
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Joy Rides Through the Tunnel of Grief: A Memoir, Jessica Hendry Nelson (University of Georgia Press)
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Holding the Note: Profiles in Music, David Remnick (Alfred A. Knopf)
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Otherwise: Essays, Julie Marie Wade (Autumn House Press)
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The following title has been withdrawn at the request of the author: The Book of More Delights, by Ross Gay on Bookshop.
PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000)
For a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues.
Judges: Andrea Elliott, Scott Ellsworth, Caleb Gayle
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
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Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences, Joan Biskupic (William Morrow)
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Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond (Crown)
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Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country, Patricia Evangelista (Random House)
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Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, Siddarth Kara (St. Martin’s Press)
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Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy–And What We Can Do About It, Tobias Rose-Stockwell (Legacy Lit)
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The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, Saket Soni (Algonquin Books)
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A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, Nathan Thrall (Metropolitan Books)
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Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, John Vaillant (Alfred A. Knopf)
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These longlists have been amended and updated at the request of individual authors and translators.
