Winner

Dave Anderson

The PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing, which was conferred for the first time in the fall of 2011, is given to one living American or U.S.-based writer each year to celebrate their body of work and long-time contributions to the field of literary sports writing. 

2014 Judges

Kostya Kennedy, David Rosenthal, and John Schulian

From the Judges’ Citation

For more than half a century, Dave Anderson has waded into the hurly-burly of sportswriting with quiet dignity and a true craftsman’s regard for the language. You didn’t read him for bombast or half-cocked opinion. You read him because, quite simply, he knew whereof he wrote. He was the last reporter to cover the Dodgers for the Brooklyn Eagle, and achieved art with his True magazine profile of Sugar Ray Robinson at twilight. But it was at the New York Times that he became the Dave Anderson we know best, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his impeccable columns, turning out best-selling books, mining the humanity in Muhammad Ali and Jack Nicklaus, and refusing to back down to George Steinbrenner and Don King. His integrity never wavered, his grace never disappeared on deadline, and his readers never got cheated. That’s the way pros operate, and Dave Anderson was the ultimate pro.

Past winners

Roger Angell, Dan Jenkins, and Frank Deford

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