Featured Honorees
PEN America Literary Awards honorees have produced some of the most exceptional literary works of the past 50 years. Read interviews with or excerpts of work by featured authors and translators below.
The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball’s Lost Triumph
On a long-forgotten Sunday during the middle of the nation’s bloodiest war, they uncovered what the future could look like—would look like—for a different kind of country. More
The Self-Deceptions of Empire
David Bromwich is finalist for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for the collection Moral Imagination, which explores the importance of imagination and sympathy in… More
By Way of a Preface
This ode to the essay is from Charles D'Ambrosio's Loitering: New and Collected Essays, a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. More
Three Essays from Limber
Limber is a collection of essays which chart the world's history through its trees and a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. More
The Empathy Exams
The title essay of Leslie Jamison's The Empathy Exams, a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. More
The Twisted Art of Documentary
Read an essay from Ian Buruma's Theater of Cruelty, winner of the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. More
Our Own Maps
My memory was a gift until it became a curse, until no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget things I desperately needed to forget so I might… More
The Beiruti Hustle
Beirut is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, tacky, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She’ll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life… More
The Messenger
When I saw her she was dressed in a shimmering red sari as though she had been wedded that very day. The whole street was glowing because of her.… More
Support for the freedom to read with exclusive designs by Todd Parr, Mike Curato, Art Spiegelman, and more!
