PEN America announced the longlists for its annual literary awards Wednesday, with Joy Williams, Percival Everett, and Kaitlyn Greenidge among the authors in contention for the prizes.
Williams’ Harrow, the winner of this year’s Kirkus Prize for fiction, was nominated for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, which is given to an outstanding book in any genre. Among the other titles nominated for the prize are Everett’s The Trees; Kristen Radtke’s Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, a Kirkus Prize finalist; and Elissa Washuta’s White Magic.
Greenidge’s Libertie was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award, which honors an exceptional book by an author of color, along with books including Washuta’s White Magic, Rajiv Mohabir’s Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir, and Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint’s Names for Light: A Family History.
Nominees for the PEN/Hemingway Award, given to a debut novel, include Kirkus Prize finalist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby, and Linda Rui Feng’s Swimming Back to Trout River.
Among the books making the longlist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection were Yoon Choi’s Skinship, Brenda Peynado’s The Rock Eaters, and Clare Sestanovich’s Objects of Desire.
A full list of all of the nominees is available at PEN America’s website. Finalists for the awards will be announced in January.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
