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PEN America Literary Awards 2012

The 2012 PEN America Literary Awards went to Negro Marfil/Ivory Black by Myriam Moscona, translated by Jen Hofer (PEN Award for Poetry in Translation), The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India by Siddhartha Deb (PEN Open Book Award) and Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnston (PEN Translation Prize), with winners in 5 more categories. 2 books were Honor Books and 21 books were finalists across 8 categories.

Winners

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation

  1. Negro Marfil/Ivory Black by Myriam Moscona, translated by Jen Hofersource (opens in a new tab)

PEN Open Book Award

  1. The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India by Siddhartha Debsource (opens in a new tab)

PEN Translation Prize

  1. Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnstonsource (opens in a new tab)

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

  1. Arguably by Christopher Hitchenssource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

  1. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleicksource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

  1. Open City by Teju Colesource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

  1. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massiesource (opens in a new tab)

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

  1. Zazen by Vanessa Veselkasource (opens in a new tab)

Honor Books

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

  1. Accidental Birds of the Carolinas by Marjorie Hudsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbachsource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation

  1. Light, Grass, and Letter in April by Inger Christensen, translated by Susanna Niedsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. New Impressions of Africa by Raymond Roussel, translated by Mark Fordsource (opens in a new tab)

PEN Open Book Award

  1. Oil on Water by Helon Habilasource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Water Puppets by Quan Barrysource (opens in a new tab)

PEN Translation Prize

  1. In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Sinan Antoonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Land at the End of the World by António Lobo Antunes, translated by Margaret Jull Costasource (opens in a new tab)

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

  1. Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere by André Acimansource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Lives and Letters by Robert Gottliebsource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

  1. Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohnsource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

  1. The Submission by Amy Waldmansource (opens in a new tab)
  2. We Are Taking Only What We Need by Stephanie Powell Wattssource (opens in a new tab)

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

  1. A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny Scottsource (opens in a new tab)

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

  1. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lernersource (opens in a new tab)

About the PEN America Literary Awards

Eleven PEN America book awards, one category each: Jean Stein, Open Book (incl. its predecessor Beyond Margins Award), Hemingway (debut novel), Bingham (debut fiction, now debut story collection), E.O. Wilson, Galbraith, Bograd Weld, Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Translation Prize, Poetry in Translation, Voelcker (book-based years only). PEN/Faulkner is a separate source. Year is the award year PEN uses in its announcement (books are mostly from the prior year). Winners plus finalists/shortlists/runners-up where PEN published them; longlists skipped. pen.org blocks bots, so pages were read from web.archive.org captures of pen.org; sourceUrl keeps the original pen.org URL. Before 2013 PEN printed only winners and a few runners-up, so those years are short. Hemingway 2006-2017 was run by PEN New England: winners from pen.org's Hemingway page, finalists and honorable mentions (level Honor) from Wikipedia. 2024: the ceremony was cancelled and many finalists withdrew; only listed, non-withdrawn finalists are kept, and only the winners PEN named. Voelcker honored a poet's body of work before 2021 and is included only from 2021. Galbraith is biennial. PEN's 2018 finalist and winner pages list no Poetry in Translation award, so 2018 has none. PEN's Jean Stein page lists no 2024 or 2025 winner; those years carry finalists only.

Organization: PEN America. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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