The 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony returns to New York’s Town Hall to celebrate exceptional voices in literature, from first time authors to living legends. Featuring captivating winner announcements, musical direction by Ulysses Owens, Jr., and dramatic readings from selected works, this is a celebration of this year’s most resonant literature.

This year, PEN America will present 11 book awards recognizing the finest fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, translation, and more published in 2022. Actor, author, and activist Kal Penn will host the awards.

Prizes include the $75,000 Jean Stein Award for the best and most innovative book of 2022, the $15,000 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for essay writing and the $10,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for best debut novel. Nominees range from David Sedaris and Jhumpa Lahiri to Imani Perry and U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón.