Feting Writers at the #PENLiterary Awards2012
Had a great time Monday night at the annual PEN Literary Awards fete, held at the CUNY Graduate Center. After the couple dozen awards were all passed out, I stayed for the reception where I enjoyed visiting with many old book friends and made a few new ones. Publishing pals I spoke with included Kelly Burdick (Melville House), Jane von Mehren (Random House) Tina Pohlman (Open Road), Steve Wasserman (Yale), Richard Nash (Small Demons), Robert Weil (Liveright), Binky Urban (ICM) and Heller McAlpin (NPR, BN Review book critic); the newly met included Liz Van Hoose (Viking), Cary Goldstein (Twelve), and Brigid Hughes (A Public Space). Also enjoyed speaking with authors Dava Sobel, Ron Chernow, and Elinor Lipman. Elinor and I were glad to discover that we have a friend in common: the indomitable, Jenny Allen, actress and inspiration. Elinor has recently published the wickedly clever Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. Here’s an example of Lipman’s rhyming drollery from a few days ago, before the last debate:
Elinor Lipman @ElinorLipman Dear Higher Power, pull some weight/I need Barack to win debate/I know Mitt prays & gives you money/But ain’t his church a little funny?
Speaking of tweets, I tweeted during much of the PEN ceremony, under the hashtag, #PENLiteraryAwards2012, all 16 of which I’m happy to copy & paste in below, starting with the end of the night, back to the beginning, along with photos I took. [Tweets have been edited for clarity.]
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 E.L. Doctorow receives Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, judges George Saunders, Don Delillo, Jennifer Egan
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Carol Blue, Hitchens’s widow, also in the house for the award. Steve Wasserman recalls Hitch’s devotion to free expr.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Winner for Art of the Essay is Christopher Hitchens’ “Arguably.” Given by Ruth Reichl, accepted by Steve Wasserman
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Winner of Robert Bingham fiction prize is Vanessa Veselka for “Zazen,” from Red Lemonade, pub’d by pal Richard Nash.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Winner of Open Book award by a writer of color is Siddartha Deb’s “The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India”
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Biography prize to Robert Massie for “Catherine the Great.” Runner up is Janny Scott’s bio of PBO’s mother
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 for literary sports writing to Dan Barry’s ‘Bottom of the 33rd,’ on a minor league tilt stretched into ‘a freakish epic game.’
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Dava Sobel gives Science book award to James Gleick for ‘The Information.’
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Wow, rock star translator Gregory Rabassa is in the house–he gave Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Amado to the anglophone world
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 PEN is in its 90th year as a literary org advocating for free expression worldwide. Many awards for translation.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Translation prize for most distinguished prose book: ‘Stone Upon Stone,’ Bill Johnston from Polish, Archipelago Books
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 translation grants: 9 recipients from French, Urdu, German, Czech, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, Hungarian.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Picture book winner is “Never Forgotten’ by Patricia McKissak accepted in her absence by her publisher, Schwartz&Wade
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Winner for children’s lit is Sarah Dooley for ‘Free Verse.’ Shout-out to Laura Langlie, agent.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 PEN Bellwether Prize honors ‘socially engaged fiction,’ an as-yet unpublished novel. Winner gets a contract w/Algonquin Books + $25K.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 Barbara Kingsolver presents Bellwether Prize to Susan Nussbaum, for ‘Good Kings, Bad Kings,’ to come from Algonquin.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
#PENLiteraryAwards2012 B. Kingsolver giving PEN Bellwether Prize, an unpub’d 1st novel award. Props to E.L. Doctorow’s ‘Book of Daniel’-BK’s teen fave.
Philip Turner @philipsturner
Attending #PENLiteraryAwards2012 at CUNY Grad Ctr. 1st up, PEN Pres Peter Godwin hailing Michael Henry Heim, esteemed translator/benefactor. RIP.
Note: Time prevented me from tweeting and sharing all the poetry and drama awards, so please note that there were also many worthy recipients in those categories.
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- Steve Wasserman, Hitch’s “editor, friend, agent over 27 years.”
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- Steve Wasserman, Ruth Reichl, Carol Blue
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- Carol Blue, Hitchens’ wife.
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- “Arguably,” Hitchens’ award-winning posthumously published essay collection.
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- Runners-up in the Essays category. Bob Gottlieb was editor-in-chief at Knopf for many years, then the New Yorker.
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- The Bingham Prize is for a first novel showing “great promise.”
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- Siddartha Deb, winner of the Open Book award.
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- This is a book I’m sure I’d find fascinating to read.
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- Scott researched her book for many years; she quoted me in a NY Times on Barack Obama and “Dreams From My Father” in 2008.
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- A chronicle of the longest pro baseball game in the know history of the sport.
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- James Gleick & Dava Sobel
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- Winner of the E.O. Wilson Prize in literary science writing.
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- For a career of excellence as a translator.
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- Carlos Fuentes translator Margaret Sayers Peden and the hugely influential Gregory Rabassa.
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- All nine special translation grants.
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- PEN gives two childrens’ book awards, in picture books and YA fiction.
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- Barbara Kingsolver (l.) endowed this prize, given to an as-yet unpublished work in ‘socially engaged fiction.’ Susan Nussbaum (r.) is its first recipient.
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- Kingsolver’s own work is a model for imaginative, socially conscious fiction.
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