Los Angeles — PEN USA, the West Coast center for the renowned writers’ organization International PEN, has unveiled the winners of its prestigious 2009 Literary Awards competition. The prizes, announced by PEN USA Executive Director Adam Somers, honor outstanding work by writers in 10 separate genres. They will be presented at the 19th Annual Literary Awards Festival (also known as LitFest), which will be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 6:30pm.
In addition to the literary prizes, PEN USA’s LitFest gala will feature several other honors. As a tribute to his writing accomplishments, legendary author Elmore Leonard will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In a career spanning 60 years, Leonard has published 43 novels and numerous short stories, creating a distinct literary style that has delighted readers and influenced a new generation of writers. Books like Swag, LaBrava, Freaky Deaky, and Tishomingo Blues are not only classics of the crime genre, but some of the best writing of the last half century. Many of Leonard’s novels and stories have been adapted to film: most notably Get Shorty, starring John Travolta, and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld; Out of Sight, starring George Clooney and directed by Steven Soderbergh; and Jackie Brown, from the novel Rum Punch, directed by Quentin Tarantino. In the spring, a TV series based on Leonard’s short story, Fire in the Hole, is scheduled to premiere on FX. Leonard’s most recent novel, Road Dogs, has received some of the best reviews of his career. He is currently finishing his next book, entitled Djibouti, to be published in 2010 by HarperCollins/William Morrow.
Serving as Master of Ceremonies for this year’s event will be Emmy-winning producer and political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell. Other special guests for this evening include Mark Johnson and Vince Gilligan, executive producers and creators of Breaking Bad, who’ll be presenting the Teleplay award, won by a script written for that show, to Writer’s Guild nominee George Mastras, as well as recent Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, who’ll receive the Screenplay award for Milk.
Recipients of the literary awards were chosen by a distinguished panel of writers, editors and journalists. Winners were selected from among more than 500 entries. Each winner will receive a $1000 cash prize presented at the Literary Awards Gala.
Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include: Woody Allen, Ray Bradbury, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Betty Friedan, Larry Gelbart, Vaclav Havel, Christopher Isherwood, Walter Mosley, Neil Simon, Jane Smiley, Robert Towne, Gore Vidal, and Billy Wilder.
Recipients of PEN USA’s Award of Honor, another major award given to an individual, a group or institution whose efforts have had a meaningful impact on writers in our culture, have included Otis Chandler and the Los Angeles Times; Jeffrey Bezos and Amazon; HBO; Bob Shaye and New Line Cinema; Martin Garbus, Laura Handman, Tom Julin and Charles Tobin – a quartet of First Amendment attorneys whose generous gifts of time and skills to the cause of journalistic freedom are justly renowned; and Michael Wright and the Turner Entertainment Network.
FULL LIST OF 2009 WINNERS:
Fiction KIM BARNES • A Country Called Home (Alfred A. Knopf)
Creative Nonfiction STEVE LOPEZ • The Soloist (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Research Nonfiction LESLIE T. CHANG • Factory Girls (Spiegel & Grau)
Poetry SEIDO RAY RONCI • The Skeleton of the Crow (Ausable Press)
Children’s Literature KATHI APPELT • The Underneath (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Translation MAXINE CHERNOFF & PAUL HOOVER • Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin (Omnidawn Publishing)
Journalism KAREN OLSSON • Before and After (Texas Monthly)
Drama MARISELA TREVINO ORTA • Braided Sorrow (El Centro Su Teatro)
Teleplay GEORGE MASTRAS • Breaking Bad: Crazy Handful of Nothin’ (Sony/Gran Via/Highbridge)
Screenplay DUSTIN LANCE BLACK • Milk (Newmarket Press)
ABOUT PEN USA
PEN USA is a non-profit Los Angeles-based membership organization of professional writers, and the International PEN center in the United States for those writers living west of the Mississippi River. Its members are connected by the goals of building interest in the written word and defending writers worldwide by protecting freedom of expression. Among its many contributions to the literary world, PEN USA’s Emerging Voices program awards fellowships to promising writers from underserved communities and provides them with an intensive eight-month program of workshops, classes, seminars and individual mentorships. In the classrooms of many underprivileged schools across Southern California, its PEN in the Classroom program helps children and teachers alike in the process of creative reading and writing.
For further information, visit www.penusa.org
Or contact, Mann Productions (323) 314 – 7000.
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