PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers Prize

The PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers Prize was an annual award that recognized a promising young writer of an unpublished work of nonfiction that addresses a global and/or multicultural issue.

This prize was awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a young writer under the age 35 who had had at least one prior publication (articles, essays, op-eds) in a national magazine or journal. The manuscript submission must be an original, previously unpublished work of nonfiction (essay, memoir, general nonfiction, etc.), written by one person, in English, ranging in word length from 8,000 to 80,000. The winning manuscript was be chosen by a panel of three judges: distinguished literary authors selected by PEN America’s Literary Awards Committee. Manuscripts were judged blind, to avoid any form of bias; the identity of the author of the winning manuscript (and all other submissions) was not known by any judge until after the decision was finalized.