Taiye Selasi and Kwame Dawes Make 2014 PEN Literary Awards Shortlist

Alert! The shortlists for the 2014 PEN Literary Awards have been announced, with Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go, and Ghanaian poet Kwame Dawe shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award.

PEN Literary Awards feature 18 prizes, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translation and essay writing, with total prize money of almost $150,000. Winners will be announced on 30 July, with the PEN Awards Ceremony to take place on 29 September.

The Open Book Award, which comes with $5,000 and is awarded to “an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of colour published in 2013″, was judged Catherine Chung, Randa Jarrar, and Monica Youn. Selasi was nominated for her debut novel, Ghana Must Go, and Dawes for Duppy Conqueror.

The PEN Open Book Award shortlist

• Duppy Conqueror (Copper Canyon Press), Kwame Dawes
• Leaving Tulsa (University of Arizona Press), Jennifer Elise Foerster
• domina Un/blued (Tupelo Press), Ruth Ellen Kocher
• Cowboys and East Indians (FiveChapters Books), Nina McConigley
• Ghana Must Go (Penguin Press), Taiye Selasi

PEN American Center today announced the shortlists for its prestigious Literary Awards in categories spanning fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translation, essay, and more. The shortlist includes a number of nationally and internationally acclaimed writers, including Janet Malcolm, W. S. Merwin, David Sedaris, Deborah Solomon, and James Wolcott, as well as new and emerging writers from around the world, like Kwame Dawes, Anthony Marra, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, and Taiye Selasi. The full register of shortlisted titles appears below.

• Complete article and shortlists: PEN America

Book details

• Duppy Conqueror by Kwame Dawes
  EAN: 9781556594236
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• Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780670919888
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Image courtesy of The Telegraph