PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction

The PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction is awarded by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) "to a distinguished living American author of fiction whose body of work in English possesses qualities of excellence, ambition, and scale of achievement over a sustained career which place him or her in the highest rank of American literature."[1] Initially carrying a stipend of US$40,000, the award was created with the cooperation of the Saul Bellow estate and through a grant from Evelyn Stefansson Nef. Announcing the first recipient of the award (Bellow's close friend Philip Roth), PEN president Ron Chernow said the award honors "one of America’s greatest writers...whose work over a forty-year career exemplified the capacity of fiction to encompass the totality of human experience. We are confident that this Award will help to recognize and perpetuate the qualities so evident in Saul Bellow’s writings."[1]

The award was first given in 2007.

The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN affiliates in over 145 PEN centers around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" American literary prizes.[2]

Award winners

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PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction winners[3]
Year Author Ref.
2007 Philip Roth [4][5]
2009 Cormac McCarthy [6]
2010 Don DeLillo [7][8]
2012 E. L. Doctorow [9][10]
2014 Louise Erdrich [11][12]
2016 Toni Morrison [13][14][15][16]
2018 Edmund White [17][18][19][20]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b "Philip Roth Wins Inaugural PEN/Saul Bellow Award" (Press release). PEN American Center. April 2, 2007. Archived from the original on April 29, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2007.
  2. ^ Alfred Bendixen (2005). "Literary Prizes and Awards". The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 689. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  3. ^ Lee, Allison (2016-04-29). "PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction Winners". PEN America. Archived from the original on 2022-11-26. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  4. ^ "Author Philip Roth wins Saul Bellow Award". USA Today. April 1, 2007. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  5. ^ "First PEN/Saul Bellow award goes to Roth". Los Angeles Times. 2007-04-04. Archived from the original on 2023-02-27. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  6. ^ Flood, Alison (2009-05-07). "Cormac McCarthy wins lifetime achievement award". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-02-27. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  7. ^ Flood, Alison (27 September 2010). "Don DeLillo wins PEN/Saul Bellow award". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  8. ^ "2010 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction". PEN America. 2012-11-15. Archived from the original on 2022-08-18. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  9. ^ Peter Enzinna (August 30, 2012). "PEN American Center award winners announced". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  10. ^ "2012 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction". PEN America. 2012-11-14. Archived from the original on 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  11. ^ Hillel Italie, "Erdrich wins lifetime achievement literary prize Archived 2014-09-12 at the Wayback Machine". Associated Press, September 9, 2014.
  12. ^ "Louise Erdrich Wins PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction". PEN America. 2014-09-08. Archived from the original on 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  13. ^ Galehouse, Maggie (March 1, 2016). "PEN Literary Award winners announced". Chron. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  14. ^ van Koeverden, Jane (July 18, 2017). "Toni Morrison receives $25K PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction". CBC Books. Archived from the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  15. ^ "2016 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction". PEN America. 2015-11-05. Archived from the original on 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  16. ^ Cain, Sian (2016-03-01). "Toni Morrison wins PEN/Saul Bellow award for contribution to American fiction". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  17. ^ "2018 PEN American Lifetime Career and Achievement Awards". PEN America. February 2017. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  18. ^ "Creative Writing Professor Edmund White receives PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Career Achievement in American Fiction". Lewis Center for the Arts | Princeton University. 2018-02-08. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  19. ^ Saxon, Jamie (2018-02-08). "Edmund White receives PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Career Achievement in American Fiction". Princeton University. Archived from the original on 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  20. ^ Begley, Sarah (2018-02-06). "Edmund White Wins 2018 PEN/Saul Bellow Award". Time. Archived from the original on 2022-12-05. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
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