PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

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The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to an author for a book of original collected essays. [1] The award was founded by PEN Member and author Barbaralee Diamonstein and Carl Spielvogel, [2] former New York Times columnist, "to preserve the dignity and esteem that the essay form imparts to literature." [3] The winner receives a cash award of $10,000. [1]

Contents

The award was on hiatus from 2005 to 2010. [1]

The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN affiliates in over 145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" American literary prizes. [4]

Award winners

PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay winners
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
1990 Bernard Knox Essays Ancient and ModernWinner
1991 Martha Nussbaum Love's KnowledgeWinner
1992 David Morris The Culture of PainWinner
1993 Frederick Crews The Critics Bear It Away: American Fiction and the AcademyWinner
1994 Stanley Fish There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and it's a Good Thing, TooWinner
1995 John Brinckerhoff Jackson A Sense of Place, A Sense of TimeWinner
1996 Thomas Nagel Other MindsWinner
1997 Cynthia Ozick Fame and FollyWinner
1998 Adam Hochschild Finding the TrapdoorWinner
1999 Marilynne Robinson The Death of AdamWinner
2000 Annie Dillard For the Time BeingWinner
2001 David Quammen The Boilerplate RhinoWinner
2002 David Bromwich Skeptical MusicWinner
2003 William H. Gass Test of TimeWinner
2004 Stewart Justman Seeds of MortalityWinner
2011 Mark Slouka Essays from the Nick of TimeWinner [5]
2012 Christopher Hitchens Arguably Winner [6] [7]
2013 Robert Hass What Light Can DoWinner [8] [9]
Jill Lepore The Story of AmericaShortlist [10] [11]
Daniel Mendelsohn Waiting for the BarbariansShortlist [10] [11]
2014 James Wolcott Critical MassWinner [12] [13] [14]
Rebecca Solnit The Faraway Nearby Shortlist [15]
David Sedaris Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls Shortlist [15]
Janet Malcolm Forty-One False StartsShortlist [15]
2015 Ian Buruma Theater of Cruelty: Art, Film, and the Shadow of WarWinner [16] [17]
David Bromwich Moral ImaginationShortlist [18]
Charles D’Ambrosio LoiteringShortlist [18]
Leslie Jamison The Empathy Exams Shortlist [18]
Angela Pelster LimberShortlist [18]
2016 Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me Winner [19] [20] [21]
Renata Adler After the Tall Timber: Collected Non-FictionShortlist [22]
Susan Howe The QuarryShortlist [22] [23]
Marilynne Robinson The Givenness of Things: EssaysShortlist [22]
David L. Ulin Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los AngelesShortlist [22]
2017 Angela Morales The Girls In My Town: Essays Winner [24] [25] [26]
2018 Ursula K. Le Guin No Time to Spare: Thinking About What MattersWinner [27] [28] [29] [30]
2019 Michelle Tea Against MemoirWinner [31] [32] [33]
2020 Deborah FlemingResurrection of the WildWinner [34] [35]
Eve Babitz I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve BabitzShortlist [36]
Leslie Jamison Make It Scream, Make It Burn: EssaysShortlist [36]
Emily Nussbaum I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV RevolutionShortlist [36]
Jia Tolentino Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion Shortlist [36]
2021 Barbara Ehrenreich Had I Known: Collected EssaysWinner [37] [38]
2022 Margaret Renkl Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American SouthWinner [39] [40] [41]
Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black PerformanceShortlist [42] [43]
André Aciman Homo Irrealis: EssaysShortlist [42] [43]
Teju Cole Black Paper: Writing in a Dark TimeShortlist [42] [43]
Ann Patchett These Precious Days: EssaysShortlist [42] [43]
2023 Judith Thurman A Left-Handed WomanWinner [44]
Jhumpa Lahiri Translating Myself and OthersShortlist [45]
Peter Orner Still No Word From YouShortlist [45]
David Sedaris Happy-Go-LuckyShortlist [45]
Alison Townsend The Green Hour: A Natural History of HomeShortlist [45]

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References

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