Playwright Ayad Akhtar on stage during the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards as the organization’s president at the time.
Beowulf Sheehan/PEN America
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Beowulf Sheehan/PEN America
Playwright Ayad Akhtar on stage during the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards as the organization’s president at the time.
Beowulf Sheehan/PEN America
PEN America has canceled its annual literary awards ceremony after nearly half of the nominated writers and translators withdrew their books.
The prizes will still be awarded to those who have not withdrawn, but the ceremony, scheduled for Friday April 29 in New York, will not take place. Writer and actress Jena Friedman was expected to host the event.
An open letter signed by a number of writers to PEN America leaders states: “We reject these honors bestowed by your organization in protest of your failure to address the genocide in Gaza.”
They claim that PEN America was slow to denounce “the incomparable loss of Palestinian life” and that when the organization finally did, its statement lacked “commensurate empathy.”
The war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Israel invaded Gaza in response to an attack by the militant organization Hamas on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
“We greatly respect that writers followed their conscience, whether or not they chose to remain nominated in their respective categories,” Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, PEN America’s literary programming manager, said in a statement. “As an organization dedicated to free speech and writers, our commitment to recognizing and honoring exceptional authors and the literary community is unwavering.”
In February, Palestinian-American writer Randa Jarrar was kicked out of a PEN America event in Los Angeles after she and other writers used a portable speaker to broadcast the names of writers and poets killed in Gaza. The event featured actor Mayim Bialik, who has supported Israel on social media.
PEN America Awards come with cash prizes of varying sizes. The foundation behind the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award said Stein was a “passionate advocate for Palestinian rights” and said it had asked PEN to donate the unallocated $75,000 to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund .
PEN said winners who did not withdraw will receive their cash prizes, including playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner, who will receive the PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award.
This story was edited by Jennifer Vanasco.
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