Summer Reading from the 2017 PEN America Literary Award Winners
Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres—and the 2017 Literary Awards were no exception. From a memoir on seeking a missing father, to reportage on groups fighting the NCAA, to moving short story collections with lasting power, this year’s award-winning works are testaments to the great body of work that today’s writers are producing.
With summer in full swing and readers looking for their next summer read, we are pleased to present here excerpts and interviews from this year’s inspiring lineup of award winners. Whether you’re relaxing on the beach or cooling off indoors, these highlights offer a diverse assortment of prose and poetry that is sure to please anyone looking for summer reading recommendations.
Submissions and nominations for the 2018 PEN Literary Awards are now open and will be accepted through August 15, 2017.
Interviews
Four Questions for Tess Lewis, Winner of the 2017 PEN Translation Prize
I always read my drafts out loud when I’m polishing them—I find it easier to hear mistakes or awkward passages than to 'see' them. More
Four Questions for Simon Armitage, Winner of the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
For the first time in my life I was bilingual, even if I could only communicate with people who had been dead for half a millennium. More
The PEN Ten with Rion Amilcar Scott
The only responsibility of a writer is to zealously chase his or her obsessions to every weird logical and illogical end. More
Book Excerpts
from The Girls in My Town
With the fortune-teller’s words echoing in my head, I told myself to fight like a warrior. Screaming felt good. I screamed until my throat became sandpaper. More
from Evicted
What the judge was saying, in essence, was: We all agree that you were poor and scared when you did this violent, hurtful thing. More
from What is Not Yours is Not Yours
Throwing the key into the fire was the first step of this man’s fever-born plan. The second step involved the kidnapping of a girl he had seen around. More
from Pearl
That pearl had rolled away from a mound where brightly lit plants cast bold shadows: More
from Angel of Oblivion
As soon as she starts moving, I follow her. She is my queen bee and I am her drone. The scent of her clothes reaches my nose… More
from Black Elk
Wind Cave in the Black Hills was that route to the underworld; at least, so said the medicine men, and Black Elk did not question them. More
from Patient H.M.
Memories make us. Everything we are is everything we were. This has always been true and is so obvious that it hardly needs to be said. More
from Insurrections
I bet if I were to ask him about these old times, he’d deflect with his signature joke, I hated you all equally. More
from The Return
And the fathers must have known, having once themselves been sons, that the ghostly presence of their hand will remain throughout the years… More
from Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA
Vaccaro’s legion of critics would accuse him of hypocrisy. After all, he made his living for years off the unpaid players. More