The PEN Open Book Award, formerly the Beyond Margins Awards, celebrate outstanding books by writers of color published in the United States during the previous year.

Sponsored by the Open Book Program, this award is one of the many ways in which the Open Book Program encourages racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities. The Open Book Committee works to increase the literature by, for, and about African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, Latin, and Native Americans, and to establish access for these groups to the publishing industry. Its goal is to ensure that those who are the custodians of language and literature are representative of the American people.

2010 Open Book Award Winners

Flood Song
Sherwin Bitsui

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Robin D.G. Kelley

Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History
Canyon Sam

 2009 Beyond Margins Award Winners

Say You're One of Them
Uwem Akpan

Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems
Juan Felipe Herrera

Changing
Lily Hoang

2008 Beyond Margins Award 

2008
The Present Past
Peter Cameron hosted an evening to honor Chris Abani, Amiri Baraka, Frances Hwang, Joseph M. Marshall III, and Naeem Murr, winners of the 2008 PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Featuring audio recordings of readings from Amiri Baraka, Joseph M. Marshall III, Allison Hedge Coke, and Martha Southgate; a conversation between Amiri Baraka, Joseph M. Marshall III, and Peter Cameron; and excerpts from the winner's works. [More]

2007 Beyond Margins Award 

2007
The Language of Experience
Jaime Manrique and Sonia Sanchez hosted an evening saluting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ernest Hardy, Harryette Mullen, and Alberto Ríos, winners of 2007 Beyond Margins Awards. Featuring audio recordings and photos from the event, excerpts from the winners’ works, and exclusive online conversations between Harryette Mullen and Erica Hunt, and Elizabeth Nunez and M.G. Vassanji. [More]

2006 Beyond Margins Award 

2006
Something to Declare
The 2006 Beyond Margins celebration recognized the accomplishments of Richard Blanco, Andrew Lam, Ed Bok Lee, Caryl Phillips, and Jennifer Tseng. Featuring readings by Ron Chernow, Elizabeth Nunez, and Sonia Sanchez. [More]

2005 Beyond Margins Award 

2005
Telling the (Whole) Story
Paul Auster and Elizabeth Nunez hosted an evening of readings and discussion, saluting the winners of the 2005 PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Joining in the celebration were writers Esmeralda Santiago and Colin Channer. [More] 

>> See the complete winners archive

The 2011 Open Book Award went to Manu Joseph for Serious Men (W. W. Norton & Company).

The judges wrote in their citation:

“What do microscopic aliens, racist Brahmins, fraudulently gifted children, ill-timed adultery, and the state of the gutter press have in common? Everything, in Manu Joseph’s Serious Men, which seamlessly weaves these and other recondite worlds together through the hearts of a dangerously human cast of characters who are both lifted up and undone by their desire and ambition. But it is not only that Joseph nimbly travels through Dalit slums, arid marriages, and research labs with equal agility. It is the ripe human psyche, both fragile and triumphant, that he illuminates and skewers with equal measure, leading to a brilliantly plotted text of extraordinary humor and depth. Joseph is a new voice and a tremendously skilled one, that rare bird who can wildly entertain the reader as forcefully as he moves them.”

Runner up:
John Murillo for Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher Books)

2011 Judges:
Cornelius Eady, Nam Le, Lizzie Skurnick