PEN/Nabokov award relaunched as literary prize for international authors

The PEN/Nabokov award has been relaunched with a renewed focus on international writers, reports the Guardian. The US$50,000 (A$64,995) literary prize recognises the work of writers born or residing outside of the US, either writing in or translated into English. PEN America said that the judges would be looking for a writer in the field of nonfiction, poetry, drama or fiction whose body of work ‘evoke[s] to some measure Nabokov’s brilliant versatility and commitment to literature as a search for the deepest truth and the highest pleasure’. The PEN/Nabokov replaces the previous award of the same name, which focussed on US writers. PEN America president Andrew Solomon states that the new award will ‘draw attention to outstanding global voices that may be unknown to most US readers’ while also paying tribute to the ‘master of storytelling: Vladimir Nabokov’. Five international judges will select the winner of the annual prize which will be announced in February next year at the PEN America literary awards ceremony in New York. The award is not open to public nomination.

Category: International news