2026 PEN America Literary Awards Longlist

Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored outstanding voices in translation, fiction, poetry, science writing, essay, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. The longlist of finalists was announced on January 29, and the winners were announced on March 31.

For more information check out the Pen Literary Awards website.

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalists

DEVIL IS A SOUTHPAW by Brandon Hobson (DB 134023)
THINGS IN NATURE MERELY GROW by Yiyun Li (DB 130140)
INTO THE HUSH by Arthur Sze (DB 134100 – IN PROCESS, BR 26662 – IN PROCESS)

PEN Open Book Award

NATURAL HISTORY: POEMS by Brandon Kilbourne (DBC 31719)
MEDICINE RIVER: A STORY OF SURVIVAL AND THE LEGACY OF INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS by Mary Annette Pember (DB 129679)

PEN Translation Prize

ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME. III by Solvej Balle and translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (DB 133345 – IN PROCESS)
REMEMBERED SOLDIER by Anjet Daanje and translated from the Dutch by David McKay (DB 130894 – IN PROCESS)
SONS AND DAUGHTERS by Chaim Grade and translated from the Yiddish by Rose Waldman (DB 131557)

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

THE HAVES AND HAVE-YACHTS: DISPATCHES ON THE ULTRARICH by Evan Osnos (DB 130978)

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

THEY POISONED THE WORLD: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE AGE OF FOREVER CHEMICALS by Mariah Blake (DB 129168)
DINNER WITH KING TUT: HOW ROGUE ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARE RE-CREATING THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS, SMELLS, AND TASTES OF LOST CIVILIZATION by Sam Kean (DB 131815)
STRATA: STORIES FROM DEEP TIME by Laura Poppick (DB 131355)

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

BALDWIN: A LOVE STORY by Nicholas Boggs (DB 131983)
TROUBLEMAKER: THE FIERCE, UNRULY LIFE OF JESSICA MITFORD by Carla Kaplan (DB 134155 – IN PROCESS)
WHEN CAESAR WAS KING: HOW SID CAESAR REINVENTED AMERICAN COMEDY by David Margolick (DB 133737 – IN PROCESS)
STAN AND GUS: ART, ARDOR, AND THE FRIENDSHIP THAT BUILT THE GILDED AGE by Henry Wiencek (DB 131939)
ELECTRIC SPARK: THE ENIGMA OF DAME MURIEL by Frances Wilson (DB 134034 – IN PROCESS)

PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction

BEING JEWISH AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA by Peter Beinart (DB 127493)
A GREEK TRAGEDY: ONE DAY, A DEADLY SHIPWRECK, AND THE HUMAN COST OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS by Jeanne Carstensen (DB 129257)
THE ZORG: A TALE OF GREED AND MURDER THAT INSPIRED THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY by Siddharth Kara (DB 133314)
NOTHING MORE OF THIS LAND: COMMUNITY, POWER, AND THE SEARCH FOR INDIGENOUS IDENTITY by Joseph Lee (DB 133424)
WE SURVIVED THE NIGHT by Julian Brave NoiseCat (IN PROCESS)

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