PEN announces 2014 literary award winners

PEN announced the winners of its 2014 literary awards Wednesday -- most of them, anyway. The recipient of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, a $25,000 prize, will not be named until the awards ceremony Sept. 29 in New York.

The winners of the more than a dozen awards that were announced include poet Frank Bidart, playwright David Rabe and essayist James Wolcott. Books published in 2013 were eligible for the 2014 awards.

The complete list of announced winners is below.

PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver ($25,000): To an author of an unpublished novel that addresses issues of social justice. The prize also includes a publishing contract with Algonquin Books.
Winner: “And West is West” by Ron Childress

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays that exemplifies the dignity and esteem the essay form imparts to literature.
Winner: “Critical Mass” (Doubleday) by James Wolcott

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award ($10,000): For a book of literary nonfiction on the subject of the physical or biological sciences
Winner: “High Price” (Harper) by Dr. Carl Hart

PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Awards: Three awards honoring a master American dramatist, an American playwright in midcareer and an emerging American playwright.
Master American dramatist - Winner: David Rabe
American playwright in midcareer ($7,500) - Winner: Donald Margulies
Emerging American playwright ($2,500) - Winner: Laura Marks

PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color.
Winners:
“domina Un/blued” (Tupelo Press) by Ruth Ellen Kocher
“Cowboys and East Indians” (FiveChapters Books) by Nina McConigley

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000)
Winner: “Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Linda Leavell

PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry ($5,000): To a poet whose distinguished and growing body of work to date represents a notable and accomplished presence in American literature.
Winner: Frank Bidart

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports
Winner: “League of Denial” (Crown Archetype) by Mark FainaruWada and Steve Fainaru

PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To a writer whose body of work represents an exceptional contribution to the field.
Winner: Dave Anderson

PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing ($5,000): To a writer for an exceptional story illustrated in a picture book
Winner: “The King of Little Things” (Peachtree Publishers) by Bil Lepp

PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship ($5,000): To an author of children’s or young adult fiction, who has published at least two books, to complete a book-length work in progress.
Winner: “The Taste of Elephant Tears,” Linda Oatman High

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): For a book-length translation of poetry into English
Winner: “Diaries of Exile” by Yannis Ritsos (Archipelago) translated by Karen Emmerich and Edmund Keeley

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): For a book-length translation of prose into English
Winner: “Autobiography of a Corpse” by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (New York Review Books) translated by Joanne Turnbull and Nikolai Formozov

PEN/Edward and Lily Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature ($3,000): To a living author of a major work of Paraguayan literature not yet translated into English.
Winner: “En Tacumbú (El Lector)” by Raúl Silva Alonso

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