PEN America revealed the first round of longlists for its annual literary prizes, with Claire Jiménez, Justin Torres, and Maya Binyam among the authors in the running for the literary nonprofit group’s awards.
Jiménez is among the nominees for the PEN/Hemingway Award, given to a debut novel, for her What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez. Jiménez recently won the PEN/Faulkner Award for the book. She is joined on the longlist by Binyam for Hangman, Jinwoo Chong for Flux, Nicole Cuffy for Dances, Sarah Cypher for The Skin and Its Girl, Javier Fuentes for Countries of Origin, Rachel Eliza Griffiths for Promise, Ling Ling Huang for Natural Beauty, Miah Jeffra for American Gospel, and James Frankie Thomas for Idlewild.
Binyam also made the longlist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award, given to “a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact,” as did Torres for his National Book Award–winning Blackouts. Also nominated for that prize were Camille T. Dungy for Soil, Catherine Lacey for Biography of X, Christina Sharpe for Ordinary Notes, Brian Teare for Poem Bitten by a Man, Joseph Earl Thomas for Sink, Alejandro Varela for The People Who Report More Stress, Monica Youn for From From.
The nominees for the the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, given to a debut short story collection, were Aaliyah Bilal for Temple Folk, Gen Del Raye for Boundless Deep, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie for The Missing Morningstar, Kate Doyle for I Meant It Once, Kristen Gentry for Mama Said, Mai Nardone for Welcome Me to the Kingdom, Kenan Orhan for I Am My Country, Cleo Qian for LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO, and Ada Zhang for The Sorrows of Others.
The shortlists for the prizes will be announced before the awards ceremony on April 29. Nominees for the other PEN America awards, including ones for nonfiction, biography, and science writing, will be revealed at a later date.
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.
