PEN CENTER USA
2009 Lit Awards - Elmore Leonard earns LIfetime Achievement Award

PEN USA is proud to announce the winners of the 2009 Literary Awards. Honoring outstanding work by writers in 10 separate genres, the prizes will be presented at the 19th Annual Literary Awards Festival (also known as LitFest), which will be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 6:30pm.

This year’s winners are:
Fiction:

KIM BARNES, A Country Called Home (Alfred A. Knopf)

Creative Nonfiction:

STEVE LOPEZ, The Soloist (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Research Nonfiction:

LESLIE T. CHANG, Factory Girls (Spiegel & Grau)

Poetry:

SEIDO RAY RONCI, The Skeleton of the Crow (Ausable Press) Children’s

Literature: KATHI APPELT, The Underneath (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Translation: MAXINE CHERNOFF & PAUL HOOVER, Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin (Omnidawn Publishing)

In addition to the literary prizes, PEN USA’s LitFest gala will feature several other honors. As a tribute to his writing accomplishments, legendary author Elmore Leonard will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

In a career spanning 60 years, Leonard has published 43 novels and numerous short stories, creating a distinct literary style that has delighted readers and influenced a new generation of writers. Books like Swag, LaBrava, Freaky Deaky, and Tishomingo Blues are not only classics of the crime genre, but some of the best writing of the last half century. Leonard’s most recent novel, Road Dogs, has received some of the best reviews of his career. He is currently finishing his next book, entitled Djibouti, to be published in 2010 by HarperCollins/William Morrow.