The PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingway family and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/Society. It is administered by PEN America. Mary Welsh Hemingway, a member of PEN, founded the award in 1976 both to honor the memory of her husband and to recognize distinguished first books of fiction.
The winner is selected by a panel of three distinguished fiction writers and receives a cash prize of US$25,000. [1] Along with the winner, two finalists and two runners-up receive a Ucross Residency Fellowship at the Ucross Foundation, a retreat for artists and writers on a 22,000 acre (89 km²) ranch on the high plains in Ucross, Wyoming. The award ceremony is held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
The award presentation is sponsored in part by the JFK Presidential Library. [2]
The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by PEN International affiliates in over 145 PEN centres around the world.
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Loyd Little | Parthian Shot | |
| 1977 | Renata Adler | Speedboat | |
| 1978 | Darcy O'Brien | A Way of Life, Like Any Other | |
| 1979 | Reuben Bercovitch | Hasen | |
| 1980 | Alan Saperstein | Mom Kills Kids and Self | |
| 1981 | Joan Silber | Household Words | |
| 1982 | Marilynne Robinson | Housekeeping | |
| 1983 | Bobbie Ann Mason | Shiloh and Other Stories | |
| 1984 | Joan Chase | During the Reign of the Queen of Persia | |
| 1985 | Josephine Humphreys | Dreams of Sleep | |
| 1986 | Alan V. Hewat | Lady's Time | |
| 1987 | Mary Ward Brown | Tongues of Flame | |
| 1988 | Lawrence Thornton | Imagining Argentina | |
| 1989 | Jane Hamilton | The Book of Ruth | |
| 1990 | Mark Richard | The Ice at the Bottom of the World | |
| 1991 | Bernard Cooper | Maps to Anywhere | |
| 1992 | Louis Begley | Wartime Lies | |
| 1993 | Edward P. Jones | Lost in the City | |
| 1994 | Dagoberto Gilb | The Magic of Blood | |
| 1995 | Susan Power | The Grass Dancer | |
| 1996 | Chang-Rae Lee | Native Speaker | |
| 1997 | Ha Jin | Ocean of Words | |
| 1998 | Charlotte Bacon | A Private State | |
| 1999 | Rosina Lippi | Homestead |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Jhumpa Lahiri | Interpreter of Maladies | Winner | [4] |
| 2001 | Akhil Sharma | An Obedient Father | Winner | |
| Mohsin Hamid | Moth Smoke | Finalist | ||
| Tom Paine | Scar Vegas and other Stories | Finalist | ||
| Myla Goldberg | Bee Season | Runner-Up | ||
| Elissa Schappell | Use Me | Runner-Up | ||
| 2002 | Justin Cronin | Mary and O’Neil | Winner | |
| Peter Orner | Esther Stories | Finalist | ||
| Manil Suri | The Death of Vishnu | Finalist | ||
| Carolyn Cooke | The Bostons | Runner-Up | ||
| Micheline Aharonian Marcom | Three Apples Fell From Heaven | Runner-Up | ||
| 2003 | George Brownstein | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. W | Winner | |
| Christie Hodgen | A Jeweler’s Eye for Flaw | Finalist | ||
| Gabe Hudson | Dear Mr. President | Finalist | ||
| Jonathan Tel | Arafat’s Elephant | Runner-Up | ||
| Julia Whitty | A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga | Runner-Up | ||
| 2004 | Jennifer Haigh | Mrs. Kimble | Winner | |
| Murad Kalam | Night Journey | Finalist | ||
| Z. Z. Packer | Drinking Coffee Elsewhere | Finalist | ||
| Suki Kim | The Interpreters | Runner-Up | ||
| Ellen Ullman | The Bug | Runner-Up | ||
| 2005 | Chris Abani | GraceLand | Winner | |
| Samina Ali | Madras on Rainy Days | Finalist | ||
| Laurie Lynn Drummond | Anything You Say Can and Will be Used Against You | Finalist | ||
| Jerome Richard | The Kiss of the Prison Dancer | Runner-Up | ||
| Hannah Tinti | Animal Crackers | Runner-Up | ||
| 2006 | Yiyun Li | A Thousand Years of Good Prayers | Winner | |
| Daniel Alarcon | War by Candlelight | Finalist | ||
| Douglas Trevor | The Thin Year in the Fabric of Space | Finalist | ||
| Karen Olsson | Waterloo | Runner-Up | ||
| Jess Row | The Train to Lo Wu | Runner-Up | ||
| 2007 | Ben Fountain | Brief Encounters With Che Guevara | Winner | |
| Yvette Christianse | Unconfessed | Finalist | ||
| Rebecca Johns | Icebergs | Finalist | ||
| Janna Levin | A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines | Runner-Up | ||
| Marisha Pessl | The Special Topics in Calamity Physics | Runner-Up | ||
| 2008 | Joshua Ferris | Then We Came to the End | Winner | |
| Rebecca Curtis | Twenty Grand | Finalist | ||
| Ravi Howard | Like Trees Walking | Finalist | ||
| Gary Schanbacher | Migration Patterns | Runner-Up | ||
| Margot Singer | The Pale of Settlement | Runner-Up | ||
| 2009 | Michael Dahlie | A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living | Winner | |
| Sana Krasikov | One More Year | Finalist | ||
| Ed Park | Personal Days | Finalist | ||
| Doug Dorst | Alive in Necropolis | Runner-Up | ||
| Matthew Quick | The Silver Linings Playbook | Runner-Up | ||
| 2010 | Brigid Pasulka | A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True | Winner | [5] |
| C. E. Morgan | All the Living | Finalist | ||
| Abraham Verghese | Cutting for Stone | Finalist | ||
| Mary Beth Keane | The Walking People | Runner-Up | ||
| Lydia Peelle | Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing | Runner-Up | ||
| 2011 | Brando Skyhorse | The Madonnas of Echo Park | Winner | |
| Patricia Engel | Vida | Finalist | ||
| Suzanne Rivecca | Death Is Not An Option | Finalist | ||
| Danielle Evans | Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self | Honorable mention | ||
| Helen Simonson | Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand | Honorable mention | ||
| 2012 | Teju Cole | Open City | Winner | [6] |
| Amy Waldman | The Submission | Finalist | ||
| Stephanie Powell Watts | We Are Taking Only What We Need | Finalist | ||
| Chad Harbach | The Art of Fielding | Honorable mention | ||
| Marjorie Hudson | Accidental Birds of the Carolinas | Honorable mention | ||
| 2013 | Kevin Powers | The Yellow Birds | Winner | [7] |
| Jennifer duBois | A Partial History of Lost Causes | Finalist | ||
| Vaddey Ratner | In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree | Finalist | ||
| Catherine Chung | Forgotten Country | Honorable mention | ||
| Peter M. Wheelwright | As It Is On Earth | Honorable mention | ||
| 2014 | NoViolet Bulawayo | We Need New Names | Winner | [8] [9] |
| Mitchell S. Jackson | The Residue Years | Finalist | ||
| Anthony Wallace | The Old Priest | Finalist | ||
| Jasmine Beach-Ferrara | Damn Love | Honorable mention | ||
| Kristopher Jansma | The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards | Honorable mention | ||
| Ethan Rutherford | The Peripatetic Coffin | Honorable mention | ||
| 2015 | Arna Bontemps Hemenway | Elegy on Kinderklavier | Winner | [10] |
| Kim Fu | For Today I Am a Boy | Finalist | ||
| Atticus Lish | Preparation for the Next Life | Finalist | ||
| Mark Chiusano | Marine Park | Honorable mention | ||
| Diane Cook | Man V. Nature | Honorable mention | ||
| 2016 | Ottessa Moshfegh | Eileen | Winner | [11] |
| S. M. Hulse | Black River | Finalist | ||
| Margaret Malone | People Like You | Finalist | ||
| Karim Dimechkie | Lifted by the Great Nothing | Honorable mention | ||
| Chigozie Obioma | The Fisherman | Honorable mention | ||
| 2017 | Yaa Gyasi | Homegoing | Winner | [12] |
| Bill Beverly | Dodgers | Finalist | ||
| Leopoldine Core | When Watched | Finalist | ||
| Callan Wink | Dog Run Moon | Honorable mention | ||
| Melissa Yancy | Dog Years | Honorable mention | ||
| 2018 | Weike Wang | Chemistry | Winner | [13] |
| Lisa Ko | The Leavers | Finalist | ||
| Adelia Saunders | Indelible | Finalist | ||
| Ian Bassingthwaighte | Live from Cairo | Honorable mention | ||
| Curtis Dawkins | The Graybar Hotel | Honorable mention | ||
| 2019 | Tommy Orange | There There | Winner | [14] [15] |
| Akwaeke Emezi | Freshwater | Finalist | ||
| Ling Ma | Severance | Finalist | ||
| Meghan Kenny | The Driest Season | Honorable mention | ||
| Nico Walker | Cherry | Honorable mention | ||
| 2020 | Ruchika Tomar | A Prayer for Travelers | Winner | [16] |
| Madeline ffitch | Stay and Fight | Runner-Up | ||
| Regina Porter | The Travelers | Runner-Up | ||
| 2021 | Kawai Strong Washburn | Sharks in the Time of Saviors | Winner | [17] [18] |
| Maisy Card | These Ghosts Are Family | Finalist | ||
| Raven Leilani | Luster | Finalist | ||
| Douglas Stuart | Shuggie Bain | Finalist | ||
| C. Pam Zhang | How Much of These Hills Is Gold | Finalist | ||
| 2022 | Torrey Peters | Detransition, Baby | Winner | [19] |
| Avni Doshi | Burnt Sugar | Finalist | [20] | |
| Carolyn Ferrell | Dear Miss Metropolitan | Finalist | [20] | |
| Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois | Finalist | [20] | |
| Kirstin Valdez Quade | The Five Wounds | Finalist | [20] | |
| 2023 | Oscar Hokeah | Calling for a Blanket Dance | Winner | [21] [22] |
| Lisa Hsiao Chen | Activities of Daily Living | Finalist | [23] | |
| Ramona Emerson | Shutter | Finalist | [23] | |
| Alissa Songsiridej | Little Rabbit | Finalist | [23] | |
| Ryan Lee Wong | Which Side Are You On | Finalist | [23] | |
| 2024 | Fuentes Javier | Countries of Origin | Winner | [24] |
| Jinwoo Chong | Flux | Finalist | [25] | |
| Miah Jeffra | American Gospel | Finalist | [25] |