NEW YORK (AP) — Several authors have turned down awards and awards nominations from PEN America, citing unhappiness with the literary and free expression organization’s stance on the war in Gaza.
This week, PEN announced its long lists in categories ranging from the $75,000 Jean Stein Award for best book to the $10,000 PEN/Hemingway award for first novel. Authors who have asked for their names to be withdrawn include Jean Stein nominee Camonghne Felix, poetry finalist Eugenia Leigh and short story nominee Ghassan Zeineddine.
“I decided to decline this recognition and asked to be removed from the long list in solidarity with the ongoing protest of PEN’s continued normalization and denial of genocide,” Felix, author of the memoir “Dyscalculia,” wrote on X.
The awards are scheduled to be handed out during an April 29 ceremony in Manhattan, hosted by writer-comedian Jena Friedman. A PEN spokesperson said that nine out of 60 nominated authors had asked for their names to be withdrawn. PEN also confirmed that Esther Allen had declined the PEN/Ralph Manheim Award for translation and added that it would soon announce a new winner.
Paris Olympics: What to know and who to watch during the boxing competition
Huangguoshu Waterfall transformed into misty wonderland in SW China's Guizhou
Xi Holds Talks with Kazakh President
Xi Story: Agricultural Science, Technology Carry the Weight of Food Security
Water begins to flow again in downtown Atlanta after outage that began Friday
Scenery in Ergun, China's Inner Mongolia
China's Zhangjiajie prepares for reopening
Historical community grows with new vitality in China's Guangdong
Nearly 1,000 people honor a young Ukrainian journalist and volunteer combat medic killed in action
LORD ASHCROFT: Hypocrisy was always the charge against Angela Rayner, not tax
Migratory birds seen in Qilihai wetland nature reserve in Tianjin