The PEN/Nabokov Award celebrates the accomplishments of a living author whose body of work, either written in or translated into English, represents achievement in a variety of literary genres and is of enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship. PEN/Nabokov Award honorees will be writers, principally novelists, whose works evoke to some measure Nabokov's brilliant versatility and commitment to literature as a search for the deepest truth and the highest pleasure—what Nabokov called the "indescribable tingle of the spine." It is offered in even-numbered years.

Past winners: William H. Gass, Mario Vargas Llosa, Mavis Gallant, Philip Roth, and Cynthia Ozick.

The PEN/Nabokov Award will be judged by a panel of PEN members and will be administered by internal nomination only.

Panelists will not accept applications and will consider only authors who have published a book in the United States within the past two years. In light of the important role translation plays in international letters, translators will also receive due recognition when the Award is given to a writer whose language of composition is not English. The manner of acknowledging translators will be determined in consultation with the judges and will include a stipend and/or special mention in the award citation.

For more information, contact awards@pen.org or (212) 334-1660, ext. 126.