PEN America has released the names of its 2024 award finalists and winners of the 2024 PEN America Literary Awards. The five finalists and a winning title for each award were selected by the judges during their final deliberation, which took place before some authors withdrew from consideration as finalists. Winners who remained under consideration for their respective award will receive their cash prizes, the organization said. There will be no Literary Awards ceremony this year.
The winner of the 2024 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel is Javier Fuentes for Countries of Origin (Pantheon), and the winner of the 2024/PEN Award for Poetry in Translation is Patty Crane for her translation from Swedish of The Blue House: Collected Works of Tomas Tranströmer by Tomas Transtromer (Copper Canyon Press).
PEN America said that no book award winners will be announced if the selected winning title was no longer under consideration for the award. For the cash prizes that could not be conferred, a decision about how to allocate the funds will be made on a case-by-case basis, according to the specifications of each award contract and the wishes of award underwriters. Of the 61 authors and translators nominated for a book award this cycle, 28 authors chose to withdraw their books from consideration.
PEN America recognized the career achievement winners, including playwright Tony Kushner for the 2024 PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award; Suzanne Jill Levine for the 2024 PEN/Ralph Manheim Award for Translation; playwright and screenwriter Guadalís Del Carmen for the 2024 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award; and a posthumous award to novelist, critic, and playwright Maryse Condé for the 2024 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. Condé died on April 2.