7 Reasons You Should Read This Year’s PEN Literary Award Winners

June 20, 2018 books, Conversations, Lifestyle, Travel, Travel & Leisure, Work & Play

Authors from all over the world came together last week to celebrate the best and brightest in contemporary literature at the 2014 PEN Literary Awards.

The ceremony honors both recently published authors and those whose work has been pivotal in crafting the modern literary scene. Prize-winning books ranged from deep dives into the world of sports medicine to playful children’s stories to enchanting literary fiction.

These books are all must-reads, but in case you need more convincing to check out these titles, here are seven reasons why you should be reading this year’s 2014 PEN Literary Award winners.

Reasons Why You Should Be Reading This Year’s PEN Literary Award Winners

1. They empower children

This year, storyteller Bil Lepp won the PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing with his children’s book The King of Little Things. By following the King of Little Things and his tiny subjects in their struggle to stop the devious King Normous, readers learn the value of simplicity and the power held by even those who are small. The book is made even more endearing by Lepp’s inspiration for the story — a whimsical playtime misadventure with his own son.

Image: leppstorytelling.com
2. They let you travel the world

Part of the power of literature is its ability to take you somewhere new. It’s this very virtue that PEN America celebrates with its PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. This year, the award went to The Diaries of Exile by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Karen Emmerich and Edmund Keeley. The Diaries of Exile details the life of a prisoner during the Greek Civil War, transporting readers to 1940s Greece within the bounds of this collection’s diary poems.

Image: Archipelago Books
3. They celebrate diversity

This year, PEN America awarded two authors — Ruth Ellen Kocher and Nina McConigley — the PEN Open Book Award. Kocher’s poetry collection domina Un/blued is simultaneously tragic and touching as it depicts various forms physical and mental of slavery. Likewise, McConigley’s Cowboys and East Indians addresses diversity and identity by looking at an eclectic cast of characters inhabiting Wyoming and India.

Image: theaerogram.com
4. They advocate for social good

Every year, PEN America spotlights social good with its PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. The prize is always awarded to an unpublished novel that addresses issues of social justice and comes with $25,000 and a publishing contract with Algonquin Books. This year, Ron Childress won the Bellwether Prize with his manuscript “And West Is West,” which explores corruption in both the military and Wall Street.

Image: penamerican.tumblr.com
5. They are confronting violence in the NFL

With the recent NFL controversies, much has been said about the brutality found within football, both on and off the field. But in their new book League of Denial, brothers Mark Fainaur-Wada and Steve Fainaru expose another type of violence perpetuated by the NFL — brain injuries incurred by players while playing football and how the NFL sought to cover up research of those injuries. This year, League of Denial won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing and was billed by the judges this year as “the [book] the National Football League fervently hopes you don’t read.”

Image: leagueofdenial.com
6. They celebrate groundbreaking authors

Every year, PEN America honors an author whose work has been critical in shaping the modern literary canon with the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. This year, the Saul Bellow Award was given to Louise Erdrich, whose poetry, story collections and novels have added depth and brilliance to contemporary literature.

Image: NPR
7. They spotlight new literature

Looking for the next great novel? The PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize introduces readers to “exceptionally talented fiction writers whose debut work represents literary achievement and suggests great promise.” This year, the Bingham Prize was awarded to Shawn Vestal and his story collection Godforsaken Idaho.

Image: Boise Weekly