PEN Fetes 10th Award Recipients

PEN Center USA West honored winners of its 10th annual literary awards at a banquet on Saturday at the Biltmore. The awards are given for outstanding achievement by writers west of the Mississippi.

The winners were: Pete Dexter, in fiction, for “Paris Trout”; Mae Briskin, short story, “A Boy Like Astrid’s Mother”; Paul Monette, nonfiction, “Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir”; Ellen Howard, “Her Own Song,” children’s books; Virginia Euwer Wolff for “Probably Still Nick Swanson,” young adult; Michael Palmer, “Sun,” poetry; Naomi Foner, “Running on Empty,” screenplay; Shawn Hubler and Lennie LaGuire, “Asian Pacific Sketchbook,” journalism; and Marlane Meyer, “Kingfish,” drama.

The Freedom-to-Write President’s Award went to Lee Tae Bok of South Korea. William Everson and the late Robert Duncan, both poets, were honorees for Body of Work.