For Immediate Release: April 13, 2003
Further information: James Roth 617-514-1662
Boston, MA—On Sunday, April 13, PEN/New England and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum will honor Gabriel Brownstein as the 2003 recipient of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for his collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W,published by W. W. Norton & Company. Patrick Hemingway, the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway, will present the award at the April 13th ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. Ernest Hemingway’s papers are archived at the Kennedy Library and Museum.
Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will serve as keynote speaker at the April 13th ceremony. The ceremony will also honor writer Adam Haslett with the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, given annually to an author from New England or to an author whose writing includes a New England setting, for his collection of stories, You Are Not A Stranger Here, published by Nan A. Talese, a division of Random House.
Gabriel Brownstein – 2003 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Recipient
Gabriel Brownstein’s debut collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W, consists of re-imaginings of classic works transpiring in the same apartment complex, capturing the eccentricities and hidden frailties of extraordinary people. Of Brownstein’s writing, author Tama Janowitz says “[his is] a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.” His short stories have appeared in Zoetrope: All Story and the Literary Review. Gabriel Brownstein lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Finalists in the competition for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award are Christie Hodgenfor A Jeweler’s Eye for Flaw and Gabe Hudson for Dear Mr. President. The Hemingway Foundation/Society, headed by Linda Wagner-Martin, funds the award’s $7,500 prize. Judges for the award were Percival Everett, Maureen Howard, and Jim Shepard.
Past recipients of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award include Justin Cronin for Mary and O’Neil, Akhil Sharma for An Obedient Father, Jhumpa Lahiri for Interpreter of Maladies, Marilynne Robinson for Housekeeping, Susan Power for The Grass Dancer, Louis Begley for Wartime Lies, and Chang-rae Lee for Native Speaker.
The late Mary Hemingway, the wife of Ernest Hemingway and a PEN member, founded the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 1976 to honor her late husband and draw attention to first books of fiction.
Adam Haslet – 2003 L.L. Winship/PEN Award Recipient
Adam Haslett's debut collection of short stories, You Are Not A Stranger Here, explores personal moments of decision and recognition that forever shape each character’s life. The stories are set in varied locations, including New England. Novelist Jonathan Franzen describes Haslett as "...an old-fashioned young storyteller with something urgent and fresh and fiercely intelligent to say." The judges of the $3,000 award are authors and PEN New England members Jennifer Barber, Douglas Bauer, Suzanne Berne, David Mehegan, and George Packer. The L.L. Winship Award honors long-time Boston Globe editor Laurence L. Winship and is a joint endeavor by PEN New England and the Globe.
Adam Haslett is a graduate of Swarthmore College and holds an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His work has been published in Zoetrope: All Story, The Yale Review, and BOMB. Mr. Haslett will graduate from Yale Law School this May. He resides in New York.
Mr. Haslett and competition finalists and runners-up receive Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers. Finalists include Sven Birkerts for My Sky Blue Trades, Robert Harms for The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade, Lucy Honig for Open Season, Atul Gawande for Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, and Don Share for Union. Runners-up are Jonathan Tel for Arafat’s Elephant and Julia Whitty for A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, PEN New England, the Friends of the Hemingway Collection, The Boston Globe, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/Society, and the Ucross Foundation sponsor the presentation of the awards. PEN New England provides a focal point for New England’s literary community, sponsors literary events, helps advance the cause of literature and reading, and defends free expression.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is home to the largest collection of Ernest Hemingway’s papers. Jacqueline Kennedy described Mary Hemingway’s gift of Ernest Hemingway’s papers as helping “to fulfill our hopes that the Library will become a center for the study of American civilization, in all its aspects.” Mrs. Kennedy brought the presentation of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award to the Kennedy Library from New York. The Hemingway Foundation/Society, PEN New England, The Boston Globe, and the Kennedy Library ensure that the judging and presentation of the award remain in New England.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and is supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization.
For further information about the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award or the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, contact PEN New England at 617-499-9550. For further information on the award ceremony and reservations, contact 617-514-1643.