Here are the longlists for the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards

Here are the longlists for the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards!

The finalists will be revealed next month, with winners being announced March 2.

You can see the significance of each award, plus its judges and monetary value, on PEN America's announcement page.

PEN America describes itself as the nation’s foremost literary and free expression organization.

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award

• My Pinup by Hilton Als 

• Acting Class by Nick Drnaso 

• If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery 

• Dr. No by Percival Everett 

• Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso 

• Milkweed Smithereens by Bernadette Mayer

• If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga 

• The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar

• Customs by Solmaz Sharif 

• Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

PEN Open Book Award

• Golden Ax by Rio Cortez

• Shutter by Ramona Emerson 

• The Black Period by Hafizah Augustus Geter 

• The Listening Skin: Poems by Glenis Redmond

• Gorgoneion by Casey Rocheteau 

• All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran 

• The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

• Making Love with the Land by Joshua Whitehead 

• Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe 

• Solito by Javier Zamora

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection

• Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo 

• Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin

• Is This How You Eat a Watermelon? by Zein El-Amine

• If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery 

• A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero

• A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks 

• What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri 

• The Anchored World by Jasmine Sawers 

• Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty 

• Manywhere by Morgan Thomas

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel 

• A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn 

• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan 

• Activities of Daily Living by Lisa Hsiao Chen 

• Shutter by Ramona Emerson 

• Nuclear Family by Joseph Han 

• Calling For a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah 

• Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley 

• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu 

• Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej 

• Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong

PEN/Voelcker Award For Poetry Collection 

• Smoking the Bible by Chris Abani 

• [To] The Last [Be] Human by Jorie Graham

• Maafa by Harmony Holiday 

• The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon 

• To The Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis 

• Cain Named The Animal by Shane Mcrae 

• Pink Waves by Sawako Nakayasu

• blood snow by Dg Nanouk Okpik

• Then The War by Carl Phillips 

• Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves 

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation  

• The Loose Pearl, written by Paula Ilabaca Nuñez and translated from Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky 

• No Way in the Skin without This Bloody Embrace, written by Jean D’Amérique and translated from French by Conor Bracken 

• The Threshold, written by Iman Mersal and translated from Arabic by Robyn Creswell

• claus and the scorpion, written by Lara Dopazo Ruibal and translated from Galician by Laura Cesarco Eglin

• Dolore Minimo, written by Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto and translated from Italian by Gabriella Fee and Dora Malech

• Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, written by Forough Farrokhzad and translated from Persian by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. 

• distant transit, written by Maja Haderlap and translated from German by Tess Lewis

• Motherfield, written by Julia Cimafiejeva and translated from Belarusian by Valzhyna Mort and Hanif Abdurraqib

• The Rust of History, written by Sotero Rivera Avilés and translated from Spanish by Raquel Salas Rivera 

• Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, written by Adela Zamudio and translated from Spanish by Lynette Yetter

PEN Translation Prize 

• All Your Children, Scattered, written by Beata Umybyeyi Mairesse and translated from French by Alison Anderson

• The Tatami Galaxy, written by Tomihiko Morimi and translated from Japanese by Emily Balistrieri

• Jawbone, written by Mónica Ojeda and translated from Spanish by Sarah Booker

• Call Me Cassandra, written by Marcial Gala and translated from Spanish by Anna Kushner

• Moldy Strawberries, written by Caio Fernando Abreu and translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato

• Toño the Infallible, written by Evelio Rosero and translated from Spanish by Victor Meadowcroft and Anne McLean

• Ghost Town, written by Kevin Chen and translated from Taiwanese by Darryl Sterk

• People from Bloomington, written by Budi Darma and translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao

• A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast, written by Dorthe Nors and translated from Danish by Caroline Waight

• Pina, written by Titaua Peu and translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay 

• I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein 

• Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri 

• A Place in the World by Frances Mayes 

• Still No Word From You by Peter Orner

• Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties by Suzanne Roberts 

• Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris

• Small Acreages: New and Selected Essays by Georgia Green Stamper 

• Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening by Laurie Stone

• A Left-Handed Woman by Judith Thurman 

• The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home by Alison Townsend 

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 

• Different by Frans de Waal 

• Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross 

• Orchid Muse by Erica Hannickel 

• Sounds Wild and Broken by David George Haskell 

• A Molecule Away from Madness by Sara Manning Peskin 

• The Wine-Dark Sea Within: A Turbulent History of Blood by Dhun Sethna 

• Big Bang of Numbers by Manil Suri 

• Heartbreak by Florence Williams 

• An Immense World by Ed Yong 

• Dancing Cockatoos by Marlene Zuk

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography  

• An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville by Reza Aslan 

• Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality by Tomiko Brown-Nagin

• Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas

• The Adventures of Herbie Cohen by Rich Cohen 

• G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage 

• The Hyacinth Girl: T. S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse by Lyndall Gordon 

• Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda by Ruth Harris 

• Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans 

• The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer 

• Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy 

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction 

• The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees by Matthieu Aikins 

• Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods by Lyndsie Bourgon 

• After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics–And How to Fix It by Will Bunch 

• The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning by Eve Fairbanks 

• Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernandez

• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry 

• The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind by Martin Sixsmith 

• The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher 

• The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet by Nell McShane Wulfhart 

• Solito by Javier Zamora 

Related posts 

• Meet the 2022 PEN America Literary Award winners

• Congrats to the 2021 PEN America Literary Award winners!