About the Literary Awards
PEN Center USA’s annual awards program, established in 1982, is a unique, regional, “Best in the West” competition that recognizes literary excellence in ten categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, research nonfiction, poetry, children’s literature, translation, journalism, drama, teleplay, and screenplay. Each fall, PEN USA calls for submissions of work produced or published in that calendar year by writers living west of the Mississippi River. Entries in the ten categories are reviewed and judged by panels of distinguished writers, critics and editors. Winners are announced in June and they receive $1,000 cash prizes and are honored at the annual Literary Awards Festival in October/November in Los Angeles.
The Literary Awards Festival evening includes a dinner, the presentation of the competitive literary awards and the honoree awards and a silent auction or raffle. This gala event is attended by more than 500 writers and readers. Past recipients of the Award of Honor and Lifetime Achievement Award include: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ray Bradbury, Otis Chandler, Betty Friedan, Robert Towne, Octavia E. Butler, Carolyn See, Kevin Starr, and Billy Wilder. The highlight of the evening is the presentation of the prestigious Freedom to Write Award, given to men and women who have produced work in the face of extreme adversity, who have been punished for exercising their freedom of expression or who have fought against censorship and defended the right to publish freely.