PEN announces shortlists for its 2013 awards

PEN American Center announced the finalists for its 2013 awards Thursday. The organization will present 16 prizes, giving away nearly $150,000 to writers, editors and translators.

At $25,000, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction is the largest single award. Michigan-based independent publisher Dzanc Books made the shortlist with Jac Jemc’s “My Only Wife.” The University of Chicago Press’ rare foray into original fiction paid off, with “A Naked Singularity” by Sergio de la Pava -- a 688-page novel -- landing on the shortlist as well.

The other three finalists for the prize are Wiley Cash for “A Land More Kind Than Home,” published by William Morrow; Lucia Perillo for “Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain,” published by W.W. Norton; and Claire Vaye Watkins for “Battleborn,” published by Riverhead.

Finalists for the organization’s major nonfiction award, the $10,000 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, are “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo, published by Random House; “God’s Hotel” by Victoria Sweet, published by Riverhead; “Iron Curtain” by Anne Applebaum, published by Doubleday; and “Moby-Duck” by Donovan Hohn, published by Penguin.

There are also awards for an essay collection, science writing, sports writing, an exceptional work of literature by a person of color, biography, a picture book for children, and works of translation in both poetry and prose. The winners will be announced in August and the awards presented at a ceremony in October.

The complete list of finalists, along with the judges for each prize, appears below.

PEN American Center 2013 awards finalists

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): To an author whose debut work — a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2012 — represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise. Judges: Tom Drury, Danielle Evans and Donald Ray Pollock

“A Land More Kind Than Home” (William Morrow), Wiley Cash
“A Naked Singularity” (University of Chicago Press), Sergio de la Pava
“My Only Wife” (Dzanc Books), Jac Jemc
“Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain” (W.W. Norton & Co.), Lucia Perillo
“Battleborn” (Riverhead Books), Claire Vaye Watkins

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000): To an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues which has been published in the United States during 2011 or 2012. Judges: Eliza Griswold, Maya Jasanoff and Edward Mendelson

“Iron Curtain” (Doubleday), Anne Applebaum
“Behind the Beautiful Forevers” (Random House), Katherine Boo
“Moby-Duck” (Penguin Books), Donovan Hohn
“God’s Hotel” (Riverhead Books), Victoria Sweet

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays published in 2012 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature. Judges: Sven Birkerts, Robert Gottlieb and Mark Kramer

“What Light Can Do” (Ecco), Robert Hass
“The Story of America” (Princeton University Press), Jill Lepore
“Waiting for the Barbarians” (New York Review Books), Daniel Mendelsohn

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 published in 2012. Judges: Deborah Blum, Katherine Bouton and Jerome Groopman

“The Forest Unseen” (Viking), David George Haskell
“The Violinist’s Thumb” (Little, Brown and Company), Sam Kean
“Subliminal” (Vintage Books), Leonard Mlodinow
“Spillover” (W.W. Norton & Co.), David Quammen
“Rabid” (Viking), Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2012. Judges: Cyrus Cassells, Porochista Khakpour and Tiphanie Yanique

“Gun Dealers’ Daughter” (W.W. Norton & Co.), Gina Apostol
“When My Brother Was an Aztec” (Copper Canyon Press), Natalie Diaz
“Allegiance” (Wayne State University Press), Francine J. Harris
“Our Andromeda” (Copper Canyon Press), Brenda Shaughnessy
“The Grey Album” (Graywolf Press), Kevin Young

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): For a distinguished biography published in 2012. Judges: Debby Applegate, Peter Orner and Charles Shields

“James Joyce” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Gordon Bowker
“All We Know” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Lisa Cohen
“A Difficult Woman” (Bloomsbury), Alice Kessler-Harris
“The Lives of Margaret Fuller” (W.W. Norton & Co.), John Matteson
“The Black Count” (Broadway Books), Tom Reiss

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2012. Judges: Jane Leavy, William Leitch and Ben McGrath

“Over Time” (Grove Press), Frank Deford
“Road to Valor” (Broadway Books), Aili and Andres McConnon
“Like Any Normal Day” (St. Martin’s Press), Mark Kram, Jr.
“Floyd Patterson” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), W.K. Stratton

PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing ($5,000): To a writer for an exceptional story illustrated in a picture book published in 2012. Judges: Barbara Shook Hazen, David Wiesner and Cheryl Willis Hudson

“Snakes” (Scholastic), Nic Bishop
“Oh, No!” (Schwartz & Wade Books), Candace Fleming and illustrator Andrea Castellani
“I Lay My Stitches Down” (Eerdmans), Cynthia Grady and illustrator Michele Wood
“Those Rebels, John & Tom” (Scholastic), Barbara Kerley and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham
“The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau” (Eerdmans), Michelle Markel and illustrator Amanda Hall

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): For a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2012. Judge: Don Mee Choi

“Spit Temple by Cecilia Vicuña (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rosa Alcalá
“Diadem” by Marosa di Giorgio (BOA Editions), Adam Giannelli
“Tales of a Severed Head” by Rachida Madani (Yale University Press), Marilyn Hacker
“The Smoke of Distant Fires” by Eduardo Chirinos (Open Letter Books), G. J. Racz
“Almost 1 Book/Almost 1 Life” by Elfriede Czurda (Burning Deck), Rosmarie Waldrop
“The Shock of the Lenders and Other Poems” by Jorge Santiago Perednik (Action Books), Molly Weigel

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): For a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2012. Judges: Margaret Carson, Bill Johnston and Alex Zucker

“A Long Day’s Evening” by Bilge Karasu (City Lights Books), Aron Aji and Fred Stark
“Near to the Wild Heart” by Clarice Lispector (New Directions), Alison Entrekin
“Down the Rabbit Hole” by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Rosalind Harvey
“The Cardboard House” by Martín Adán (New Directions), Katherine Silver
“The Island of Second Sight” by Albert Vigoleis Thelen (Overlook Press), Donald O. White

2013 SHORTLISTS AND JUDGES

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): To an author whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2012—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

Judges: Tom Drury, Danielle Evans, and Donald Ray Pollock

Shortlist:

A Land More Kind Than Home (William Morrow), Wiley Cash

A Naked Singularity (University of Chicago Press), Sergio de la Pava

My Only Wife (Dzanc Books), Jac Jemc

Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain (W.W. Norton & Co.), Lucia Perillo

Battleborn (Riverhead Books), Claire Vaye Watkins

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000): To an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues which has been published in the United States during 2011 or 2012.

Judges: Eliza Griswold, Maya Jasanoff, and Edward Mendelson

Shortlist:

Iron Curtain (Doubleday), Anne Applebaum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Random House), Katherine Boo

Moby-Duck (Penguin Books), Donovan Hohn

God’s Hotel (Riverhead Books), Victoria Sweet

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays published in 2012 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.

Judges: Sven Birkerts, Robert Gottlieb, and Mark Kramer

Shortlist:

What Light Can Do (Ecco), Robert Hass

The Story of America (Princeton University Press), Jill Lepore

Waiting for the Barbarians (New York Review Books), Daniel Mendelsohn

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 published in 2012.

Judges: Deborah Blum, Katherine Bouton, and Jerome Groopman

Shortlist:

The Forest Unseen (Viking), David George Haskell

The Violinist’s Thumb (Little, Brown and Company), Sam Kean

Subliminal (Vintage Books), Leonard Mlodinow

Spillover (W.W. Norton & Co.), David Quammen

Rabid (Viking), Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2012.

Judges: Cyrus Cassells, Porochista Khakpour, and Tiphanie Yanique

Shortlist:

Gun Dealers’ Daughter (W.W. Norton & Co.), Gina Apostol

When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press), Natalie Diaz

Allegiance (Wayne State University Press), Francine J. Harris

Our Andromeda (Copper Canyon Press), Brenda Shaughnessy

The Grey Album (Graywolf Press), Kevin Young

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): For a distinguished biography published in 2012.

Judges: Debby Applegate, Peter Orner, and Charles Shields

Shortlist:

James Joyce (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Gordon Bowker

All We Know (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Lisa Cohen

A Difficult Woman (Bloomsbury), Alice Kessler-Harris

The Lives of Margaret Fuller (W.W. Norton & Co.), John Matteson

The Black Count (Broadway Books), Tom Reiss

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2012.

Judges: Jane Leavy, William Leitch, and Ben McGrath

Shortlist:

Over Time (Grove Press), Frank Deford

Road to Valor (Broadway Books), Aili and Andres McConnon

Like Any Normal Day (St. Martin’s Press), Mark Kram, Jr.

Floyd Patterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), W.K. Stratton

PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing ($5,000): To a writer for an exceptional story illustrated in a picture book published in 2012.

Judges: Barbara Shook Hazen, David Wiesner, and Cheryl Willis Hudson

Shortlist:

Snakes (Scholastic), Nic Bishop

Oh, No! (Schwartz & Wade Books), Candace Fleming and illustrator Andrea Castellani

I Lay My Stitches Down (Eerdmans), Cynthia Grady and illustrator Michele Wood

Those Rebels, John & Tom (Scholastic), Barbara Kerley and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau (Eerdmans), Michelle Markel and illustrator Amanda Hall

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): For a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2012.

Judge: Don Mee Choi

Shortlist:

Spit Temple by Cecilia Vicuña (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rosa Alcalá

Diadem by Marosa di Giorgio (BOA Editions), Adam Giannelli

Tales of a Severed Head by Rachida Madani (Yale University Press), Marilyn Hacker

The Smoke of Distant Fires by Eduardo Chirinos (Open Letter Books), G. J. Racz

Almost 1 Book/Almost 1 Life by Elfriede Czurda (Burning Deck), Rosmarie Waldrop

The Shock of the Lenders and Other Poems by Jorge Santiago Perednik (Action Books), Molly Weigel

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): For a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2012.

Judge: Margaret Carson, Bill Johnston, and Alex Zucker

Shortlist:

A Long Day’s Evening by Bilge Karasu (City Lights Books), Aron Aji and Fred Stark

Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (New Directions), Alison Entrekin

Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Rosalind Harvey

The Cardboard House by Martín Adán (New Directions), Katherine Silver

The Island of Second Sight by Albert Vigoleis Thelen (Overlook Press), Donald O. White

2013 CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS AND JUDGES

(The following PEN Awards do not have shortlists but are listed below to announce the participation of those authors who are judging the awards. The winners will be announced in August along with all of the winners for the book awards.)

PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry ($5,000): To a new and emerging poet of any age who has not published more than one book of poetry.

Judges: Henri Cole, Dorianne Laux, and Robert Wrigley

- See more at: https://www.pen.org/press-release/2013/07/10/shortlists-announced-2013-pen-literary-awards#sthash.6J92Kzpy.dpu

2013 SHORTLISTS AND JUDGES

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): To an author whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2012—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

Judges: Tom Drury, Danielle Evans, and Donald Ray Pollock

Shortlist:

A Land More Kind Than Home (William Morrow), Wiley Cash

A Naked Singularity (University of Chicago Press), Sergio de la Pava

My Only Wife (Dzanc Books), Jac Jemc

Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain (W.W. Norton & Co.), Lucia Perillo

Battleborn (Riverhead Books), Claire Vaye Watkins

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000): To an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective and illuminating important contemporary issues which has been published in the United States during 2011 or 2012.

Judges: Eliza Griswold, Maya Jasanoff, and Edward Mendelson

Shortlist:

Iron Curtain (Doubleday), Anne Applebaum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Random House), Katherine Boo

Moby-Duck (Penguin Books), Donovan Hohn

God’s Hotel (Riverhead Books), Victoria Sweet

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($10,000): For a book of essays published in 2012 that exemplifies the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature.

Judges: Sven Birkerts, Robert Gottlieb, and Mark Kramer

Shortlist:

What Light Can Do (Ecco), Robert Hass

The Story of America (Princeton University Press), Jill Lepore

Waiting for the Barbarians (New York Review Books), Daniel Mendelsohn

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 published in 2012.

Judges: Deborah Blum, Katherine Bouton, and Jerome Groopman

Shortlist:

The Forest Unseen (Viking), David George Haskell

The Violinist’s Thumb (Little, Brown and Company), Sam Kean

Subliminal (Vintage Books), Leonard Mlodinow

Spillover (W.W. Norton & Co.), David Quammen

Rabid (Viking), Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

PEN Open Book Award ($5,000): For an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2012.

Judges: Cyrus Cassells, Porochista Khakpour, and Tiphanie Yanique

Shortlist:

Gun Dealers’ Daughter (W.W. Norton & Co.), Gina Apostol

When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press), Natalie Diaz

Allegiance (Wayne State University Press), Francine J. Harris

Our Andromeda (Copper Canyon Press), Brenda Shaughnessy

The Grey Album (Graywolf Press), Kevin Young

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): For a distinguished biography published in 2012.

Judges: Debby Applegate, Peter Orner, and Charles Shields

Shortlist:

James Joyce (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Gordon Bowker

All We Know (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Lisa Cohen

A Difficult Woman (Bloomsbury), Alice Kessler-Harris

The Lives of Margaret Fuller (W.W. Norton & Co.), John Matteson

The Black Count (Broadway Books), Tom Reiss

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): To honor a nonfiction book on the subject of sports published in 2012.

Judges: Jane Leavy, William Leitch, and Ben McGrath

Shortlist:

Over Time (Grove Press), Frank Deford

Road to Valor (Broadway Books), Aili and Andres McConnon

Like Any Normal Day (St. Martin’s Press), Mark Kram, Jr.

Floyd Patterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), W.K. Stratton

PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing ($5,000): To a writer for an exceptional story illustrated in a picture book published in 2012.

Judges: Barbara Shook Hazen, David Wiesner, and Cheryl Willis Hudson

Shortlist:

Snakes (Scholastic), Nic Bishop

Oh, No! (Schwartz & Wade Books), Candace Fleming and illustrator Andrea Castellani

I Lay My Stitches Down (Eerdmans), Cynthia Grady and illustrator Michele Wood

Those Rebels, John & Tom (Scholastic), Barbara Kerley and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau (Eerdmans), Michelle Markel and illustrator Amanda Hall

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): For a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2012.

Judge: Don Mee Choi

Shortlist:

Spit Temple by Cecilia Vicuña (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rosa Alcalá

Diadem by Marosa di Giorgio (BOA Editions), Adam Giannelli

Tales of a Severed Head by Rachida Madani (Yale University Press), Marilyn Hacker

The Smoke of Distant Fires by Eduardo Chirinos (Open Letter Books), G. J. Racz

Almost 1 Book/Almost 1 Life by Elfriede Czurda (Burning Deck), Rosmarie Waldrop

The Shock of the Lenders and Other Poems by Jorge Santiago Perednik (Action Books), Molly Weigel

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): For a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2012.

Judge: Margaret Carson, Bill Johnston, and Alex Zucker

Shortlist:

A Long Day’s Evening by Bilge Karasu (City Lights Books), Aron Aji and Fred Stark

Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (New Directions), Alison Entrekin

Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Rosalind Harvey

The Cardboard House by Martín Adán (New Directions), Katherine Silver

The Island of Second Sight by Albert Vigoleis Thelen (Overlook Press), Donald O. White

2013 CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS AND JUDGES

(The following PEN Awards do not have shortlists but are listed below to announce the participation of those authors who are judging the awards. The winners will be announced in August along with all of the winners for the book awards.)

PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry ($5,000): To a new and emerging poet of any age who has not published more than one book of poetry.

Judges: Henri Cole, Dorianne Laux, and Robert Wrigley

- See more at: https://www.pen.org/press-release/2013/07/10/shortlists-announced-2013-pen-literary-awards#sthash.6J92Kzpy.dpuf

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