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PEN Award
The event honored Chris Abani as the 2005 recipient of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for Graceland (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Patrick Hemingway, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, presented the prestigious literary award. Ernest Hemingway1s papers are archived at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The late Mary Hemingway, the wife of Ernest Hemingway, founded the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1976 to honor her late husband and draw attention to first books of fiction.
The ceremony also honored writers Kevin Goodan, Swanee Hunt and Edward J. Delaney as recipients of the 2005 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, given annually to an author from New England or to an author whose writing includes a New England setting. Goodan was being recognized in the poetry category for In the Ghost House Acquainted, Hunt was honored in the non-fiction category for This Was Not Our War, and Delaney was honored in the fiction category for Warp & Weft. The L.L. Winship/PEN Award honors long-time Boston Globe editor Laurence L. Winship and is sponsored by the Boston Globe and PEN/New England.
The other two Hemingway award judges were Howard Norman and Patricia Powell. The Winship judges were Richard Hoffman, Mary Oliver and Monica Wood.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo served as the ceremony1s keynote speaker. Richard Russo is the author of five novels: Mohawk, The Risk Pool, Nobody1s Fool, Straight Man and Empire Falls, and a collection of short stories, The Whore's Child.
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| Hemingway/PEN award winners and judges Front row from left: Patricia Powell, Mary Oliver, Swanee Hunt, Monica Wood, Richard Russo, Laurie Lynn Drummond, Chris Abani. Back row: Suzanne Strempek Shea, Richard Hoffman, Edward J. Delaney, Kevin Goodan |
Finalists in the competition for the 2005 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award were Laurie Lynn Drummond for Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You (Harper Collins); and Samina Ali for Madras on Rainy Days (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Runners-up were Jerome Richard for The Kiss of the Prison Dancer (The Permanent Press) and Hannah Tinti for Animal Crackers (The Dial Press). Abani and competition finalists and runners-up receive Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, PEN New England, the Friends of the Hemingway Collection, The Boston Globe, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/Society, and the Ucross Foundation sponsor the presentation of the awards. PEN New England provides a focal point for New England1s literary community, sponsors literary events, helps advance the cause of literature and reading, and defends free expression. Read more about PEN New England, and become a member, by visiting www.pen-ne.org