The PEN American Center today announced the shortlists and judges for its 2013 PEN Literary Awards. Taken together, the awards, fellowships and grants from the literary and human rights organization will confer $150,000 on writers, editors and translators.
The finalists for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, which awards $25,000 to the author of a debut work of fiction, are “Battleborn,†by Claire Vaye Watkins; “Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain,†by Lucia Perillo; “My Only Wife,†by Jac Jemc; “A Land More Kind Than Home,†by Wiley Cash; and “A Naked Singularity,†by Sergio de la Pava. This year’s judges in the category are Tom Drury, Danielle Evans and Donald Ray Pollock.
The nonfiction award, a $10,000 prize named for John Kenneth Galbraith, is available for books published in 2011 or 2012. This year’s finalists are “Iron Curtain,†by Anne Applebaum; “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,†by Katherine Boo; “Moby-Duck,†by Donovan Hohn; and “God’s Hotel,†by Victoria Sweet. The judges are Eliza Griswold, Maya Jasanoff and Edward Mendelson.
Other award categories include essay collection, science writing, sports writing and biography. The full list of finalists in all categories also includes Daniel Mendelsohn, Lisa Cohen, David Quammen and Frank Deford. The winners will be announced later this summer and honored at a ceremony on Oct. 21 at CUNY Graduate Center’s Proshansky Auditorium.
