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April 14, 2025By Erin Somers

PEN America Literary Awards Finalists

April 14, 2025By Erin Somers

PEN America announced the finalists for its Literary Awards across 11 categories, with winners to be named on May 8. This year, some nominees have once again pulled their books from consideration in protest of the organization. A selection of finalists:

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
Dead in Long Beach, California, Venita Blackburn (MCD)
With My Back to the World: Poems, Victoria Chang (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
On Freedom, Timothy Snyder (Crown)

PEN Open Book Award
Vengeance Feminism, Kali Nicole Gross (Seal Press)
The Dark Delight of Being Strange, James B. Haile, III (Columbia University Press)
Black Women Taught Us, Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (Random House)
The Blueprint, Rae Giana Rashad (Harper)

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Softie, Megan Howell (West Virginia University Press)
I’ll Give You a Reason, Annell López (Feminist Press)
Japa and Other Stories, Iheoma Nwachukwu (University of Georgia Press)
The Man in the Banana Trees, Marguerite Sheffer (University of Iowa Press)
Sad Grownups, Amy Stuber (Stillhouse Press)

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
Dead in Long Beach, California, Venita Blackburn (MCD)
Early Sobrieties, Michael Deagler (Astra House)
Controlled Conversations, Karol Lagodzki (Milford House Press)
The Road to the Salt Sea, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé (Amistad)
Catalina, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (Random House)

Full list here.

Filed Under: Awards

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