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<\/a><\/p>\nThis morning, PEN<\/small> America released the 2021 Literary Awards Finalists<\/a>. More than forty-five imprints and presses are featured on the list, with half of the titles coming from university and indie presses. Twenty books are from writers making their literary debuts, and half the titles among the open-genre awards are poetry collections. Chosen by a cohort of judges representing a wide range of disciplines, backgrounds, identities, and aesthetic lineages, these fifty-five Finalist books represent a humbling selection of the year\u2019s finest examples of literary excellence.<\/p>\n The stories on the Finalists lists are about parents, grandparents, and grandchildren, about siblings and their rivalries. These writers share the lives of people who are nonbinary and people who are transgender; people of all ages with changing bodies; immigrants and citizens and people seeking refuge; a basketball legend; a young woman who plucks factory chickens smooth; a tugboat driver; and Phillis Wheatley, America\u2019s first Black poet. Writers and translators lay soldiers, veterans, and scientists to the page. They show us an Algerian bookstore owner, a ranger-naturalist in the Great Western Divide, the first 999 women sent to Auschwitz, a mother named Ivory Mae who bought a yellow house for her family, and a DREAM<\/small>er named Gina. They write of the first and last stargazers, and ask us to look up.<\/p>\n From the deepest fathoms of the ocean to the Mexican American borderlands; from southeastern Nigeria, Hawaii, colonial Jamaica, and China to contemporary Salt Lake City, Harlem, and weight-lifting gyms; from the Gambia to 1770s Boston; from Colombia, Iran, Taiwan, and French-occupied Algiers to a greenhouse in Sweden; across rivers and into the underworld; from Australian rainforests to Alaskan estuaries, the deserts of Saudi Arabia, and nineteenth-century Edo, Japan; and from Lisbon to Angola\u2014connected by curling strands of hair\u2014these stories, whether real or imagined, tell the truth.<\/p>\n In these stories we see the banality of daily life. We see families, legends, religious rites and cleansing; we see burials, wildfires, knife blades, emperors, gods, and divine favor; false teeth, sobriety, and addiction; sexual manners and vulgarities, magical flowers and their nectar, mythology, and queer dreams. We are shown the limits of American assimilation, the search for home, and migration as \u201can ancient and lifesaving response to environmental change, a biological imperative as necessary as breathing.\u201d We hear whale songs transmitted over ocean waves. We read interdisciplinary poetics, newspaper clippings, imagined and factual obituaries, technological escapes and collapses, faked deaths and stolen identities, the murder of Black men, and the horrors of the suburban imagination.<\/p>\n Amid what is for many the most challenging time of their life, we remember through these books the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the transatlantic slave trade, the 1961 state-sanctioned drownings of Algerians in Paris, and the establishment of our global caste systems, and we recognize how our history has made our present. These books tell of real people, of a reality far beyond an expired canon. They remove barriers and show us our connected humanity.<\/p>\n These books reveal to us the world. Read them. Read their stories.<\/p>\n \u2014Jane Marchant, literary awards program director for PEN<\/small> America<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small>\/Jean Stein Book Award<\/strong><\/a> ($75,000) Judges: Vievee Francis, Fred Moten, Tommy Orange<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Borderland Apocrypha<\/em><\/a>, Anthony Cody (Omnidawn)<\/p>\n The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead Books)<\/p>\n Be Holding: A Poem<\/em><\/a>, Ross Gay (University of Pittsburgh Press)<\/p>\n The Freezer Door<\/em><\/a>, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Semiotext(e) \/ Native Agents)<\/p>\n Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Kawai Strong Washburn (MCD)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small> Open Book Award<\/a> ($10,000) Judges: Toi Derricotte, Brandon Hobson, Katie Kitamura, Jamil Jan Kochai, Akil Kumarasamy, Solmaz Sharif<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Treatise on Stars<\/em><\/a>, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (New Directions Publishing)<\/p>\n Un-American<\/em><\/a>, Hafizah Geter (Wesleyan University Press)<\/p>\n Wild Peach<\/em><\/a>, S*an D. Henry-Smith (Futurepoem Books) Inheritors<\/em><\/a>, Asako Serizawa (Doubleday)<\/p>\n How to Pronounce Knife: Stories<\/em><\/a>, Souvankham Thammavongsa (Little, Brown and Company)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small>\/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection<\/a><\/strong> ($25,000) Judges: Ben Marcus, Elizabeth McCracken, Ingrid Rojas Contreras<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alligator & Other Stories<\/em><\/a>, Dima Alzayat (Two Dollar Radio)<\/p>\n Adults and Other Children: Stories<\/em><\/a>, Miriam Cohen (Ig Publishing)<\/p>\n You Will Never Be Forgotten: Stories<\/em><\/a>, Mary South (FSG Originals)<\/p>\n A House Is a Body: Stories<\/em><\/a>, Shruti Swamy (Algonquin Books)<\/p>\n Further News of Defeat: Stories<\/em><\/a>, Michael X. Wang (Autumn House Press)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small>\/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel<\/a><\/strong> ($10,000) Judges: Ramona Ausubel, Jack Livings, Stuart Nadler<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These Ghosts Are Family: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Maisy Card (Simon & Schuster)<\/p>\n Luster: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Raven Leilani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/p>\n Shuggie Bain: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Douglas Stuart (Grove Press)<\/p>\n Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Kawai Strong Washburn (MCD)<\/p>\n How Much of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, C Pam Zhang (Riverhead Books)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/strong><\/small>\/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection<\/strong><\/a> ($5,000) Judges: Sherwin Bitsui, Cynthia Cruz, Terrance Hayes, Claudia Keelan, Bao Phi<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conjure<\/em><\/a>, Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)<\/p>\n Obit<\/em><\/a>, Victoria Chang (Copper Canyon Press)<\/p>\n The Age of Phillis<\/em><\/a>, Honor\u00e9e Fanonne Jeffers (Wesleyan University Press)<\/p>\n Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry<\/em><\/a>, John Murillo (Four Way Books)<\/p>\n Blessed as We Were: Late Selected and New Poems, 2000\u20132018<\/em><\/a>, Gerald Stern (W.\u2009W. Norton & Company)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small> Award for Poetry in Translation<\/a><\/strong> ($3,000) Judges: Daniel Borzutzky, Marissa Davis, Meg Matich<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lean Against This Late Hour<\/em><\/a>, Garous Abdolmalekian (Penguin Books) Raised by Wolves: Poems and Conversations<\/em><\/a>, Amang (Phoneme Media) Sense Violence<\/em><\/a>, Helena Boberg (Black Ocean) Katabasis<\/em><\/a>, Luc\u00eda Estrada (Eulalia Books) A New Orthography<\/em><\/a>, Serhiy Zhadan (Lost Horse Press) *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small> Translation Prize<\/a><\/strong> ($3,000) Judges: Jacqui Cornetta, Somrita Urni Ganguly, Ana L. M\u00e9ndez-Oliver, Amanda Sarasien, Niloufar Talebi, Sevin\u00e7 T\u00fcrkkan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our Riches<\/em><\/a>, Kaouther Adimi (New Directions Publishing) That Hair: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida (Tin House) Ornamental<\/em><\/a>, Juan C\u00e1rdenas (Coffee House Press) Girls Lost<\/em><\/a>, Jessica Schiefauer (Deep Vellum) A Country for Dying: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, Abdellah Ta\u00efa (Seven Stories Press) *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small>\/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay<\/a><\/strong> ($15,000) Judges: Sandra Cisneros, John D\u2019Agata, Adam Gopnik<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Had I Known: Collected Essays<\/em><\/a>, Barbara Ehrenreich (Twelve)<\/p>\n Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader<\/em><\/a>, Vivian Gornick (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/p>\n Nature Matrix: New and Selected Essays<\/em><\/a>, Robert Michael Pyle (Counterpoint Press)<\/p>\n Terroir: Love, Out of Place<\/em><\/a>, Natasha Saj\u00e9 (Trinity University Press)<\/p>\n Maybe the People Would Be the Times<\/em><\/a>, Luc Sante (Verse Chorus Press)<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n PEN<\/small>\/E.\u2009O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award<\/a><\/strong> ($10,000) Judges: Nassir Ghaemi, Christine Kenneally, Erin Macdonald, Banu Subramaniam<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think<\/em><\/a>, Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin Press)<\/p>\n Fathoms: The World in the Whale<\/em><\/a>, Rebecca Giggs (Simon & Schuster)<\/p>\n
\nTo a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTo an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of color.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSmall Press Distributions<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTo an author whose debut collection of short stories represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise for future work.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTo a debut novel of exceptional literary merit by an American author.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTo a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry represents a notable and accomplished literary presence.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFor a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Persian by Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Swedish by Johannes G\u00f6ransson<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Spanish by Olivia Lott<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Ukrainian by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin<\/p>\n
\nFor a book-length translation of prose from any language into English.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the French by Chris Andrews<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Portuguese by Eric M.\u2009B. Becker<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTranslated from the French by Emma Ramadan<\/p>\n
\nFor a seasoned writer whose collection of essays is an expansion on their corpus of work and preserves the distinguished art form of the essay.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFor a work that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n