List of PEN literary awards

Award Description Founded Status PEN Award for Poetry in Translation To honor a poetry translation 1996 Active PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award Established in 2016, this award is designed to honor a writer imprisoned for his or her work. Its predecessor was PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom To Write Award (see below). 2016 Active PEN/Bellwether Prize For a previously unpublished work of fiction that address issues of social justice. 2000 Active PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay For a book of original collected essays 1990 Active PEN/Edward and Lily Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature To honor an author of a major work of Paraguayan literature and the English translator. 2012 Active PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award For writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences. 2011 Active PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing To honor a nonfiction book about sports. 2010-2019 Inactive PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing To honor an author’s body of work and long-term contributions to the field of literary sports writing. 2011-2019 Inactive PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize Recognizes a promising young writer of an unpublished work of nonfiction that addresses a global and/or multicultural issue 2015 Active PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography To honor a “distinguished biography possessing notable literary merit which has been published in the United States during the previous calendar year.” 2008 Active PEN/Jean Stein Book Award To “a book that has broken new ground and signals strong potential for lasting influence.”^[2] 2016 Active PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award To a distinguished book of general nonfiction that possess the qualities of intellectual rigor, perspicuity of expression, and stylistic elegance conspicuous in the writings of author and economist John Kenneth Galbraith. 2007 Active PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry In recognition of a book of poetry with high literary character by a new and emerging American poet of any age with the promise of further literary achievement. 1999-2020 Inactive PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award To a Grand Master of American Theater and a playwright in mid-career. 1998 Active PEN/Nabokov Award To writers, principally novelists, “whose works evoke to some measure Nabokov’s brilliant versatility and commitment to literature as a search for the deepest truth and the highest pleasure”. 2000–2008; 2017– Active PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing To “a magazine editor whose high literary standards and taste have, throughout their career, contributed significantly to the excellence of the publication he or she edits.” 1993 Active PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories Annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. 1919 Active PEN Open Book Award To books published in the United States (but without citizenship or residency requirements) by “authors of color who have not received wide media coverage”. 1991 Active PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship To a writer of children’s or young-adult fiction of high literary caliber “at a crucial moment in their career to complete a book-length work-in-progress.” 2001 Active PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation To a translator “whose career has demonstrated a commitment to excellence through the body of their work”. 1982 Active PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers Recognizes 12 emerging fiction writers each year for their debut short story 2016 Active PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize To “exceptionally talented fiction writers whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories…represent distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.” 2002 Active PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction To “a distinguished living American author of fiction whose body of work in English possesses qualities of excellence, ambition, and scale of achievement over a sustained career which place him or her in the highest rank of American literature.” 2007 Active PEN Translation Fund Grants Grants are awarded each year to a select number of literary translators 2003 Active PEN Translation Prize To outstanding translations into the English language. 1963 Active PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry To an American poet whose distinguished and growing body of work to date represents a notable and accomplished presence in American literature. 1994 Active PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Honours writers anywhere in the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression. Succeeded by PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award (see above). 1987–2015 Inactive PEN/Steven Kroll Award “to acknowledge the distinct literary contributions of picture book writers.” 2012–2014 Inactive PEN/W.G. Sebald Award To honor a promising writer who has published three works of fiction. 2010–2011 Inactive PEN Emerging Writers Awards To up-and-coming authors whose writing have been featured in distinguished literary journals, but haven’t published book-length works. 2011–2011 Inactive PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award^[3][4] Unpublished writers submit original short story manuscripts. Each manuscript will compete for a $10,000 cash grant and publication at Amazon.com and in The Boston Book Review. Award active for one year. 2000–2000 Inactive Architectural Digest Award for Literary Writing on the Visual Arts^[5][6] For literary writing on the visual arts. Award active for two years. 2000–2001 Inactive Gregory Kolovakos Award To a U.S. literary translator, editor, or critic “whose work, in meeting the challenge of cultural difference, extends Gregory Kolovakos’s commitment to the richness of Hispanic literature and to expanding its English-language audience”. 1992–2004 Inactive Jerard Fund Award^[7] Honors a work in progress of general nonfiction distinguished by high literary quality by a woman at the midpoint in her career. Presented every 2 years. 2001–2005 Inactive Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir^[8] For a first published memoir. 1998–2006 Inactive Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction^[9] For an American author’s first-published book of general nonfiction. 1989–2006 Inactive PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award^[10] To a U.S. resident “who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.” The award succeeded the PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award 2008–2008 Inactive PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award To a U.S. resident who “fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.” 1993–2006 Inactive Renato Poggioli Translation Award^[11] For a translator at work on an English-language version of Italian literature. 1991–2000 (?) Inactive Roger Klein Award for Career Achievement^[12] To a trade book editor every two years for “distinguished editorial achievement.”^[13] 1971–2000 (?) Inactive Roger Klein Award for Editing^[14] An honor “given [every two years] to an outstanding editor in trade hardcover publishing.”^[15] 1971–2000 (?) Inactive