2017 PEN America Literary Awards Winners To Fill Your Reading List

No doubt, book lovers are already making their summer reading lists. To assist with your choices, we present you with 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Winners. 50 exceptional literary works were chosen for the finals by the esteemed judging panels. With the addition of four new prizes, this year’s awards have been the largest ever, conferring over $300,000 to writers and translators spanning the fields of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, translation, and more.

We remind you that Pen America's mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, which recognizes a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact has been awarded to The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar. Also The Pulitzer Prize Winner, this novel is a memoir of the author's journey home to his native Libya in search of answers to his father's disappearance.

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction awarded to an author whose debut work - a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2016 - represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise has gone to Insurrections by Rion Amilcar Scott.The novel portrays individuals growing up and growing old in an African American community.

Click to find the list of all winners.