PEN America Literary Awards Longlists Aren't Kidding Around

PEN America has announced its longlists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards! The awards "will confer over $380,000 to writers and translators," with finalists to be announced in February. For now, we're delighted to see poets like S*an D. Henry-Smith and Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge in the running for the PEN Open Book Award, and Rae Armantrout and Craig Santos Perez for the PEN/Voelcker Award. Phan Nhiên Hạo—whose Paper Bells (The Song Cave) was translated from the Vietnamese by Hai-Dang Phan—is among several other great nominees in the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation category. Wayne Koestenbaum also makes an appearance, with Figure It Out: Essays (Soft Skull Press) nominated for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

The longlists also include titles in biography, science, debut novel, short story, and more. Find them in full at PEN America.