The two Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award finalists are Ravi Howard for Like Trees Walking (Amistad/Harper Collins) and Rebecca Curtis for Twenty Grand (Harper Collins). Two writers will receive honorable mention: Margot Singer for The Pale of Settlement (University of Georgia Press) and Gary Schanbacher for Migration Patterns (Fulcrum Publishing).
Judges for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award this year were acclaimed fiction writers Ana Castillo, Jennifer Haigh and Ernest Hebert.
Ferris will receive an $8,000 prize from the Hemingway Foundation and a one week residency in The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at the University of Idaho’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. Ferris and competition finalists and runners-up receive Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers.
The late Mary Hemingway, the wife of Ernest Hemingway, founded the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1976 to honor her late husband and draw attention to first books of fiction. Past recipients of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award include Edward P. Jones, Dagoberto Gilb, Susan Power, Chang-Rae Lee, Ha Jin, Charlotte Bacon, Rosina Lippi, Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma, Justin Cronin, Gabriel Brownstein, Jennifer Haigh, Chris Abani, Yiyun Li, and Ben Fountain.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis brought the presentation of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award to the Kennedy Library. The Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library spans Hemingway’s entire career, and contains ninety percent of existing Hemingway manuscript materials, making the Kennedy Library the world’s principal center for research on the life and work of Ernest Hemingway.
The ceremony will also honor writers Rishi Reddi, Kristen Laine, and Ann Killough as recipients of the 2007 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Awards, given annually to a New England author or a book with a New England setting. Ms. Reddi is being honored in the fiction category for Karma and Other Stories (Harper Collins); Ms. Killough in the poetry category for Beloved Idea (Alice James Books); and, Ms. Laine in the non-fiction category for American Band: Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland (Gotham Books). Judges for the Winship Awards this year were authors Marcie Hershman, Linda McCarriston, and Philip Gerard.
The L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award was established by The Boston Globe in 1975 to honor long-time Boston Globe editor Laurence L. Winship. It has been awarded in the past to E.B. White, Andre Dubus, Susan Cheever, Tracy Kidder, Mary Oliver, Susan Quinn, Jill Ker Conway, Jan Swafford, Anita Shreve, Stanley Kunitz, Leo Damrosch and Jennifer Haigh.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, PEN New England, Cerulli Associates, the Friends of the Ernest Hemingway Collection, The Boston Globe Foundation, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/Society, and the Ucross Foundation sponsor the presentation of the awards.
PEN New England provides a focal point for New England’s literary community, sponsors literary events, helps advance the cause of literature and reading, and defends free expression. It is one of five regional branches of PEN American Center, which in turn is part of International PEN, the only worldwide organization of writing professionals.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the world’s repository for the majority of Ernest Hemingway’s papers. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis described Mary Hemingway’s gift of Ernest Hemingway’s papers to the Kennedy Library as helping “to fulfill our hopes that the Library will become a center for the study of American civilization, in all its aspects.” The Hemingway Foundation/Society, PEN New England, The Boston Globe, and the Kennedy Library ensure that the judging and presentation of the award remain in New England. For more information on the Hemingway Collection at the Kennedy Library, visit www.jfklibrary.org The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and is supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization.
The ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 30 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Those interested in attending should call the Kennedy Presidential Library at (617) 514-1643 to reserve a seat.
]]>Full details and submission guidelines are available now in the Children's Book Caucus section.
]]>The award of $8,000 is presented for a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. The prize was won last year by Yiyun Li for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Two finalists and two runners-up will also be named.
The late Mary Hemingway, a member of PEN, founded the award in 1976 both to honor the memory of her husband, Ernest Hemingway, and to recognize distinguished first books of fiction. The award is funded by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, which has been administered by the Hemingway Society since 1987, and PEN New England. A panel of three distinguished fiction writers selects the winner.
Previous recipients of the Hemingway/PEN Award include Marilynne Robinson, Bobbie Ann Mason, Josephine Humphreys, Mark Richard, Louis Begley, Edward P. Jones, Susan Power, Ha Jin, Charlotte Bacon, Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma, Justin Cronin, Jennifer Haigh, and Chris Abani.
The L.L. Winship Award, established by The Boston Globe in 1975, will again be co-sponsored in 2007 by PEN New England, a branch of PEN American Center. Three prizes will be awarded: $1,000 for the best book of poetry, $1,000 for the best book of fiction, and $1,000 for the best book of nonfiction. All entries must be by New England authors or have a New England topic or setting.
Last year, the awards went to Stanley Kunitz for The Wild Braid, Jennifer Haigh for Baker Towers, and Leo Damrosch for Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius.
Previous winners of the L.L. Winship Award include E.B. White, Andre Dubus, Susan Cheever, Tracy Kidder, Mary Oliver, Susan Quinn, Jill Ker Conway, Jan Swafford, Anita Shreve, Edward Delaney, Swanee Hunt and Kevin Goodan.
Both awards will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on March 30, 2008. The ceremony is co-sponsored by the library and The Boston Globe.
For full details, eligibility requirements and entry forms, visit the Awards section.
]]>PEN New England
Lesley University
29 Everett St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
E-mail: pen_ne@lesley.edu
]]>Previous winners have included Bernard Margolis of the BPL; Tim Huggins, founder of Newtonville Books; Don Lee, writer and past editor of Ploughshares; teacher Monroe Engel; and Askold Melnyczuk, writer and founder of AGNI.
Please send in your nomination by August15th, with a paragraph describing the nominee, to:
Elizabeth Searle at e.searle@comcast.net
All nominations will be kept confidential; the winner will be decided by the PEN New England Board.
Thank you for your help,
The PEN New England Board
The two finalists were Rebecca Johns for Icebergs (Bloomsbury USA) and Yvette Christianse for Unconfessed (Other Press). Two other books received honorable mention: Marisha Pessl for Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Viking) and Janna Levin for A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (Alfred A. Knopf). Judges for the award this year were acclaimed fiction writers Elizabeth Berg, Chang-rae Lee and Sue Miller.
Ben Fountain will receive an $8,000 prize from the Hemingway Foundation and a one week residency in The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at the University of Idaho’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. Fountain and competition finalists and runners-up receive Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers.
Patrick Hemingway, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway will present the award on Sunday, April 1 at 3:00 PM, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Edward P. Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, will serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
The ceremony will also honor writers K.C. Frederick, Louise Gluck, and Sebastian Junger as recipients of the 2007 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Awards, given annually to a New England author or a book with a New England setting. Mr. Frederick is being honored in the fiction category for Inland (Permanent Press); Ms. Gluck in the poetry category for Averno (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); and, Sebastian Junger in the non-fiction category for A Death in Belmont (W.W. Norton). Judges for the Winship Awards this year were authors Rose Moss, Sue Standing, and Bill Roorbach.
The awards ceremony is free and open to the public. Those interested in attending should call the Kennedy Presidential Library at 617.514.1643 to reserve a seat.
]]>Bernard Margolis, President of the BPL, welcomed the assembled to the warmth and grandeur of the room, alluding to the richly colored murals depicting "The Quest of the Holy Grail." Michael Lowenthal, member of the PEN/NE Executive Committee—who had conceived of the event within days of Styron's passing and produced the evening with the help of fellow novelist and PEN member Jennifer Haigh—made welcoming remarks, followed by a string of readings and remembrances. These were not overly solemn.
Robert Brustein—author, critic, educator, and director—recalled Styron on Martha's Vineyard, including the author's culinary accomplishments (ham laced with bourbon was a specialty of the house), his aversion to submerging his body in the ocean, and immutable resistance to playing tennis, though a court was next door to his home. Jennifer Haigh described her own domestic bookstore of Styron's works; the copies of Lay Down in Darkness she keeps at home to give to friends, "especially those in trouble," and the venerable, marked-up copy that stays near her writing desk. She ended her remarks by reading a passage from the book. Author and educator Kenneth Greenberg, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University and editor of Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory (the actual confessions predating Styron's novel), described Styron's singular literary achievements. Greenberg read from Styron's eulogy of his longtime friend, writer James Baldwin—words intended as testimony to Baldwin that remain also as testimony to Styron, including to his commitment to bridging racial divides.
White-haired Norman Mailer, stooped and walking with two canes—winner of two Pulitzer Prizes (The Armies of the Night, The Executioner's Song) and former President of PEN America—showed no sign of age in his comments, which included memories of the prickly rivalry between him and Styron, their falling-out ("I lost his company for 24-years," said Mailer) and the eventual, careful, courtly way they rescued a fallen friendship through letters. Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks praised the power of Sophie's Choice, the way it spoke to her so directly on the other side of the world, as a cub reporter in Australia, inspiring and dedicating her to the truth of literature. A third Pulitzer winner, chief book critic of the Boston Globe, Gail Caldwell, enriched the evening with her vivid remembrance of Darkness Visible, her conversation about depression with Styron, and the muscular psychic courage he employed to battle his way out.
Styron's red-haired daughter, Susanna Styron, a filmmaker, closed the evening with a level-headed testimony to her father's high standards for the research necessary to his work, and how he extended his standards to her own work. He created "new perspectives" on the South, the family, mental illness, and the Holocaust, said Susanna, describing her father's long mission: working towards the truth.
Rose Styron sat composed and occasionally smiling—and laughing out loud during Norman Mailer's account of a competitive croquet game between him and Styron—taking in the evening's tributes to her late husband and to herself. In addition to her own work as a writer, Mrs. Styron is a human rights activist, whose activities have included the chairmanship of PEN America's Freedom-to-Write Committee. Rose Styron shared life with William Styron for more than 53 years, staunch aide and ally in pursuit of truth.
Works by William Styron:
Lie Down in Darkness (1951)
The Long March (1952, serial; 1956, book)
Set This House on Fire (1960)
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)
In the Clap Shack (1973)
Sophie's Choice (1979)
The Quiet Dust, and Other Writings (1982, expanded 1993)
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990)
A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth (1993)
(Report by Lynda Morgenroth)
]]>Full details and submission guidelines are available now in the Children's Book Caucus section.
]]>The award of $8,000 is presented for a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. The prize was won last year by Yiyun Li for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Two finalists and two runners-up will also be named.
The late Mary Hemingway, a member of PEN, founded the award in 1976 both to honor the memory of her husband, Ernest Hemingway, and to recognize distinguished first books of fiction. The award is funded by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, which has been administered by the Hemingway Society since 1987, and PEN New England. A panel of three distinguished fiction writers selects the winner.
Previous recipients of the Hemingway/PEN Award include Marilynne Robinson, Bobbie Ann Mason, Josephine Humphreys, Mark Richard, Louis Begley, Edward P. Jones, Susan Power, Ha Jin, Charlotte Bacon, Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma, Justin Cronin, Jennifer Haigh, and Chris Abani.
The L.L. Winship Award, established by The Boston Globe in 1975, will again be co-sponsored in 2007 by PEN New England, a branch of PEN American Center. Three prizes will be awarded: $1,000 for the best book of poetry, $1,000 for the best book of fiction, and $1,000 for the best book of nonfiction. All entries must be by New England authors or have a New England topic or setting.
Last year, the awards went to Stanley Kunitz for The Wild Braid, Jennifer Haigh for Baker Towers, and Leo Damrosch for Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius.
Previous winners of the L.L. Winship Award include E.B. White, Andre Dubus, Susan Cheever, Tracy Kidder, Mary Oliver, Susan Quinn, Jill Ker Conway, Jan Swafford, Anita Shreve, Edward Delaney, Swanee Hunt and Kevin Goodan.
Both awards will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on April 1, 2007. The ceremony is co-sponsored by the library and The Boston Globe.
For full details, eligibility requirements and entry forms, visit the Awards section.
]]>Boston Public Library
Rabb Lecture Hall
700 Boylston Street
Copley Square
Boston, MA
PEN New England, ACLU of Massachusetts and the Boston Public Library are marking Constitution Day with an event that will feature leading writers and actors reading from the works of writers, scholars and others whose voices have been, at one time or another, silenced, or they have been excluded from the country.
The program will proceed from the post-World War I Red Scare to the present, including writers who are excluded today based on their ideology. Although the First Amendment enshrines the free exchange of ideas, the United States has a long history of closing its doors to people whose ideas and associations it does not like. Please join us for this very important and timely event.
For more details, visit the Events Calendar.
Patrick Hemingway, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, will present the prestigious literary award at the April 2nd ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Joyce Carol Oates served as the ceremony's keynote speaker. Ernest Hemingway's papers are archived at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The late Mary Hemingway, the wife of Ernest Hemingway, founded the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1976 to honor her late husband and draw attention to first books of fiction. Judges for the award this year were acclaimed fiction writers Charlotte Bacon and Bernard Cooper, both winners of the Hemingway/PEN award for their own first books, and Rosellen Brown.
Finalists in the competition for the 2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award were Douglas Trevor for The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space (University of Iowa Press) and Daniel Alarcon for War by Candlelight (HarperCollins). Runners-up were Jess Row for The Train to Lo Wu (The Dial Press) and Karen Olsson for Waterloo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Yiyun Li will receive an $8,000 prize from the Hemingway Foundation and a one week residency in The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at the University of Idaho's MFA Program in Creative Writing. Li and competition finalists and runners-up received Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers.
The ceremony also honored writers Stanley Kunitz, Leo Damrosch, and Jennifer Haigh as recipients of the 2006 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, given annually to an author from New England or to an author whose writing includes a New England setting. Mr. Kunitz was recognized in the poetry category for The Wild Braid (W.W. Norton), Mr. Damrosch was honored in the non-fiction category for Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (Houghton Mifflin), and Ms. Haigh was honored in the fiction category for Baker Towers (HarperCollins). Judges for the awards this year were authors Rhina Espaillat, John Skoyles and Ted Weesner. The L.L. Winship/ PEN New England Award was established by The Boston Globe in 1975 to honor long-time Boston Globe editor Laurence L. Winship. It has been awarded in the past to E.B. White, Andre Dubus, Susan Cheever, Tracy Kidder, Mary Oliver, Susan Quinn, Jill Ker Conway, Jan Swafford, and Anita Shreve.
With a writing career that spans 25 years, Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, literary criticism and essays. Her writing has earned many awards including the National Book Award for her novel them (1969), the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the O'Henry Prize for Continued Achievement in the Short Story, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Lifetime Achievement Award in Fiction, the Rea Award for Short Story, and in 1978, membership in the American Academy Institute. She also has been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
For further information about the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award or the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, contact PEN New England at 617.349.8113. For further information on the award ceremony and reservations, contact the Forum Coordinator at the Kennedy Library, Amy Macdonald, at 617.514.1645.
]]>All four will read from and present their promising work at the Children's Book Caucus Discovery Evening, which will be held on Sunday, April 30 at 6:30 PM at Simmons College in Boston. Free parking is available on site. Please come and help celebrate the winners!
]]>The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Sunday April 2 at 3:00 PM at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
For full details, visit the Awards page.
]]>