This annual prize of $10,000, previously offered biennially, is awarded each year to the author of a distinguished book of nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues. The book should possess the qualities of intellectual rigor and importance, perspicuity of expression, and stylistic elegance conspicuous in the writings of author and economist John Kenneth Galbraith, whose four dozen books and countless other publications continue to provide an important and incisive commentary on the American social, intellectual, and political scene.
Eligible books will have been published in the last calendar year. The author need not be a U.S. citizen or resident to be eligible.
All winners, finalists, and longlisters for this award are eligible to receive PEN America’s official emblems. If you are a publisher and interested in obtaining PEN America’s award emblem, please write to [email protected]. For more information, please visit our Awards FAQ page.
Submissions open from June 15 – August 15, 2024 for books published in the 2024 calendar year.
2023 Winner
For a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues.
Judges: Sanjiv Bhattacharya, Geraldo Cadava, Sofija Stefanovic
The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning, Eve Fairbanks (Simon & Schuster)
From the judges’ citation: “The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks is an intimate exploration of life after apartheid that looks beyond the broader issues of politics and economics and into the complex inner lives of ordinary South Africans, three in particular. Dipuo is a firebrand anti-apartheid activist, her daughter Malaika is a schoolgirl who loves Danielle Steele novels, and Christo is a White former soldier for the apartheid regime. In a feat of reporting that spans 12 years, Fairbanks follows their fortunes in the new country, creating a gripping story of race, power and human striving. But it is their interiority that makes this book sing. With profound psychological insight and luminous prose, Fairbanks unpacks the feelings of shame, rage and pride in her subjects as they struggle to confront old prejudices and create a post-apartheid identity. For its vivid portrait of a country in flux, and its powerful meditation on our desire to be better to one another, despite the complicated histories that prevent us from doing so, this book has a wisdom that carries far beyond South Africa.”
2023 Finalists
The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning, Eve Fairbanks (Simon & Schuster)
Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, Kelly Lytle Hernandez (W. W. Norton & Company)
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, Imani Perry (HarperCollinsPublishers)
The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind, Martin Sixsmith (Pegasus Books)
Solito, Javier Zamora (Hogarth Press)
History
Previous Winners
(This award was previously offered every other year, in odd-numbered years.)
2019 Bernice Yeung for In a Day’s Work (The New Press)
2015 Sheri Fink for Five Days at Memorial (Crown)
2013 Katherine Boo for Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Random House)
2011 Robert Perkinson for Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire (Picador)
2009 Steve Coll for The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century (Penguin Group)
Eligibility
- A candidate’s work must have been published in the United States by a trade publisher between January 1 and December 31 of the applicable calendar year.
- Eligible books must be written by a single, living author.
- Candidates need not be U.S. citizens or residents.
- Memoir is eligible, so long as it possesses qualities of intellectual rigor and importance and a critical perspective that illuminates important contemporary issues.
- If you submit a book for this award, you may not submit it for any additional PEN America Literary Award, with the exception of the PEN Open Book Award. Please note that the PEN/Faulkner Award is not considered a PEN America Literary Award.
NOT eligible:
- Biographies are not accepted.
Submission Guidelines
- All submitted books must be published by a trade or academic publisher between January 1 and December 31 in the applicable year. Self-published books are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
- Books with more than one original author are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
- PEN America will only accept submissions from publishers or literary agents. Authors may not submit their own books.
- On the submission form, please select the award you are submitting to.
- Submissions of a book to multiple awards is allowed only in the case of the PEN Open Book Award. Please complete a separate submission for this award if applicable.
- Please submit verified email addresses on the submission form. Your order cannot be processed without an email address. Additional contacts are required so that we may be in contact directly if an author or translator is selected as a longlister, finalist, and/or winner.
- Upload a PDF file of the galley or final manuscript on the book submissions form. Book award submissions will be read as PDF files. Please upload the file saved as BOOKTITLE_AUTHORNAME. For the judges’ convenience, please upload a book file WITHOUT watermarks. Each book file will be kept confidentially between the Literary Awards team and the awards judges. Please note that if a book is longlisted, PEN America may request a physical copy be sent to the judging panel.
- Upload a high-resolution book jacket photo. This may be used later if the book is longlisted, a finalist, or a winner.
- Each submission is $85. Submission fees are not refundable. Please note that all payments must be made via the submission form.
- Submission fees may be waived for publishers whose annual net sales are less than $2 million. You may request an exemption here—this form asks for a letter on company letterhead stating that the press’s annual net sales are less than $2 million. Do not submit your title before requesting your fee exemption, as the Literary Awards Team will provide you with an alternative submission method.
- Once the submitted book is received and reviewed for eligibility by PEN America, it will be passed along to the judges. Please add [email protected] to your address book, as it will be the main point of contact from PEN America.