PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award

The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a "distinguished biography possessing notable literary merit which has been published in the United States during the previous calendar year."^[1] The award carries a $5,000 prize.

The award was established by Rodman L. Drake. Previous judges include Brad Gooch, Benjamin Taylor, and Amanda Vaill.

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

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography winners

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2008	Janet Malcolm	Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice	Winner	[3]
2009	Richard Brody	Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard	Winner	[4]
	Jeffrey Meyers	Samuel Johnson: The Struggle	Runner-up
	Stanley Plumly	Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography	Runner-up
2010	Michael Scammell	Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic	Winner	[5]
2011	Stacy Schiff	Cleopatra: A Life	Winner	[6]
2012	Robert K. Massie	Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman	Winner
	Janny Scott	A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother	Runner-up
2013	Tom Reiss	The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo	Winner	[7]
	Gordon Bowker	James Joyce:	Runner-up
2014	Linda Leavell	Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore	Winner	[8][9]
2015	Anna Whitelock	The Queen's Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth's Court	Winner	[10][11]
2016	Nancy Princenthal	Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art	Winner	[12][13]
2017	Joe Jackson	Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary	Winner	[14]
2018	John A. Farrell	Richard Nixon: The Life	Winner	[15][16][17]
2019	Imani Perry	Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry	Winner
2020	Jacquelyn Dowd Hall	Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America	Winner
2021	Amy Stanley	Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World	Winner	[18]
2022	Rebecca Donner	All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days. The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler:	Winner	[19]
2023	Dan Charnas	Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm	Winner	[20]

References

1. PEN American Center Literary Awards Archived 2012-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
2. Alfred Bendixen (2005). "Literary Prizes and Awards". The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 689.
3. "Our Critic's Tip Sheet on Current Reading: Kingsley Amis Drinks; Bill Bryson Admonishes; and PEN Bestows Prizes". The New York Observer. May 19, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
4. "Page-Turner: Congratulations". The New Yorker. May 5, 2009. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
5. "Writing Professor Michael Scammell at Cafe Arts Dec. 6". Columbia University. December 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
6. "Jacket Copy: PEN American Center's 2011 award winners". LA Times. August 11, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
7. Carolyn Kellogg (August 14, 2013). "Jacket Copy: PEN announces winners of its 2013 awards". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
8. Ron Charles (July 30, 2014). "Winners of the 2014 PEN Literary Awards". Washington Post. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
9. "2014 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography". pen.org. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
10. Carolyn Kellogg (May 13, 2015). "PEN announces award-winners and shortlists". LA Times. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
11. "2015 PEN Literary Award Winners". pen.org. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
12. Maggie Galehouse (March 1, 2016). "PEN Literary Award winners announced". Chron. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
13. "2016 PEN Literary Award Winners". PEN. March 1, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
14. "2017 PEN America Literary Awards Winners - PEN America". PEN America. 2017-03-27. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
15. John Maher (February 21, 2018). "Long Soldier, Zhang, Le Guin Win At 2018 PEN Literary Awards". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
16. "The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Winners". PEN America. February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
17. Porter Anderson (January 31, 2018). "Industry Notes: PEN America's Finalists". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
18. Schaub, Michael (April 9, 2021). "PEN America Presents Its Literary Awards Online". Kirkus. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
19. "PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography". PEN America. 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
20. "PEN America Honors Tina Fey, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, and 11 Authors and Translators at 2023 Literary Awards Hosted by Kal Penn". PEN America. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.

External links

• PEN America
• PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award