Image: Oakland, CA—Called by The New York Times, “The Blue Collar PEN,” PEN Oakland announces the Winners of the 32nd Annual PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Awards. The 2021 PEN Oakland Award winners will be formally recognized on Saturday, December 4, 2021 from 2:00-5:00 P.M. PST. This will be a virtual event. A Zoom link will come later. This event is free and open to the public. PEN Oakland Josephine Miles awards, named for the late poet and Professor at The University of California at Berkeley, were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. In addition there is an Adelle Foley Award, a Reginald Martin Award for Excellence in Criticism, a Gary Webb Anti -Censorship Award and a Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2021 PEN Oakland Award Recipients Are: Josephine Miles Award Joy Harjo, Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster and Contributing Editors, When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (Norton, W.W. & Company, Inc.) Nguyên Phan Quê Mai, The Mountains Sing (Algonquin Press) Derf Backderf, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio (Abrams Books) Christopher Bernard, The Socialist’s Garden of Verses (Regent Press) Daphne Brooks, Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound (Belknap Press) Nikki Giovanni, Make Me Rain poems & prose (William Morrow) Terry McMillan, It’s Not All Downhill From Here: A Novel (Ballantine Books) Adelle Foley Award Margaret Porter Troupe Gavin Newsom First Annual Reginald Martin Award for Excellence in Criticism Jerry Ward Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award Roxane Gay Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award Genny Lim Contact: Tennessee Reed (510) 206-6107 tennesseereed@gmail.com
