PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction

In a nutshell

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." 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."

Explore on Lably

ToursExplore Lably’s 3D tours

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.

Award winners

More in Writers and journalists

Aldous HuxleyEnglish writer and philosopher (1894–1963)Pliny the YoungerRoman lawyer, author and magistrate (61 – c. 113)Allen GinsbergAmerican poet and writer (1926–1997)J. K. RowlingBritish author (born 1965)Nathaniel HawthorneAmerican author (1804–1864)Robert GravesEnglish poet, novelist and critic (1895–1985)