PEN Oakland Awards & Winners

JOSEPHINE MILES AWARD:

2025 - The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the making of a Culture War by James Shapiro. (Penguin Press, an imprint of Random House LLC, 2024). The Plains of Po lyrics by George Wallace and music by Ana Spasic and Franceso Paolo Paladino. (Donemus Records, 2024). Return to Eden by Paco Roca. (Fantagraphics 2024). Small Rain by Garth Greenwell. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). In This Ravishing World by Nina Schuyler. (Regal House Publishing, 2024). Colored Television: A Novel by Danzy Senna. (Riverhead Books, 2024). Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle. (Random House, 2024). Oakland's Chinatown by William Wong. (Arcadia Publishing Library Editions, 2024). Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). The Unicorn Woman: A Novel by Gayl Jones. (Beacon Press Books, 2024). The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice — by Tricia Romano. (PublicAffairs, 2024).

2024 - Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards, Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music (Knopf); Airea D. Matthews, Bread and Circus (Scribner); Daniel Mason, North Woods (Random House); C.L.R. James (and adapted by Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee), Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (Verso); Thomas Pecore Weso, Survival Food: North Woods Stories by a Menominee Cook (Wisconsin Historical Society Press); Danny Romero, Mi Vida Oakland (and other poems) (Cholla Needles Arts and Literary Library); Dylan C. Penningroth, Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (Liveright); Pat Thomas, Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg (powerHouse Books)

2023 - Javier Zamora, Solito: A Memoir (Hogarth); Ada Limón, The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions); Perennial Earth: Poetry by Wallace Stevens and Paintings by Alexis Serio, edited by John N. Serio (New Perennials Publishing); T. J. English, Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld (William Morrow); Leila Mottley, Nightcrawling: A Novel (Knopf); Jenny Xie, The Rupture Tense (Graywolf); Kobena Mercer, Alain Locke & The Visual Arts (Yale University Press); D.S. Marriott, Before Whiteness (City Lights Publishers); Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, and Mario Hernandez, Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection (Fantagraphics)

2022 - Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (Bold Type Books); Susana Praver-Pérez, Hurricanes, Love Affairs & Other Disasters (Nomadic Press); Alison Bechdel, The Secret to Superhuman Strength (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); The late Gloria Gervitz, translated from Spanish by Mark Schafer, Migrations: Poem, 1976-2020 (New York Review of Books); Joan Steinau Lester, Loving Before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White (University of Wisconsin Press); CAConrad, Amanda Paradise, Resurrect Extinct Vibration (Wave Books); Talib Kweli, Vibrate Higher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

2021 - 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.); Nguyễn Phan Quế 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)

2020 - Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso) by Nick Estes; Salt: Poems Based in a dream that mollusks and bi-valves can suddenly sing (Goldfish Press) by Sigrun Susan Lane; The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press) by Jericho Brown; All the Fires of Wind and Light (Sixteen Rivers Press) by Maya Khosla; Cyborg Detective (BOA Editions, Ltd.) by Jillian Weise; Trick Mirror (Random House) by Jia Tolentino; Women’s War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War (Harvard University Press) by Stephanie McCurry

2019 - The Overstory by Richard Powers; When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Khan-Cullors; A Distant Center by Ha Jin; Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley; Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight; Be About Beauty by Kalamu ya Salaam; Black Steel Magnolias in the House of Chaos Theory (Nomadic Press) by James Cagney; Southern Migrant Mixtape - Vernon Keeve III, 2018 (Nomadic Press); Berlin by Jason Lutes (Drawn and Quarterly, Farrar Straus and Giroux, NY, 2019)

2018 - Tongo Eisen-Martin, Heaven is All Goodbyes (City Lights Books); Jerome Rothenberg, Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania (University of California Press); Percival Everett, So Much Blue (Graywolf Press); Andrew Sean Greer, Less (Lee Boudreaux Books); Julie Lythcott-Haims, Real American (Henry Holt & Co.); Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States (ReVisioning American History) (Beacon Press); M.L. Liebler, Heaven was Detroit: From Jazz to Hip Hop and Beyond (Wayne State University Press)

2017 - Him Me and Muhammed Ali by Randa Jarrar; Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary (Revolutionary Lives) by Gerald Horn; Dear Animal, Poems by MK Chavez (Nomadic Press); White Trash by Nancy Isenberg; Chance Encounters and Walking Dreams Poems and Prose of Francisco Ferrer Lerin, selected and translated by Arturo Mantecón; Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California edited by Kurt Schweigman and Lucille Lang Day; Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File by John Edgar Wideman; A King of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

2016 - Elizabeth Alexander, Ta Nehisi Coates, Frances Gateward, Latif Harris, Juan Felipe Herrera, John Jennings, Gerald Vizenor

2015 - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Peter Harris, Deborah A. Miranda, E. Ethelbert Miller, Lenelle Moise, Claudia Rankine, Natasha Trethewey

2014 – Daniel Chacon, Edwidge Danticat, Claudia Moreno Pisano, Roger Reeves, Nina Serrano, Akinyele Omowale Umoja

2013 – Andrew Lam, Luis J. Rodriguez, Denise M. Sandoval, Lucille Lang Day, Toni Morrison, Tim Seibles, Christopher Wagstaff

2012 – Melinda Palacio, Michael Warr, Aurora Harris, Deena Metzger, Ed Sanders, Mary Mackey, Jesmyn Ward

2011 – Devreaux Baker, N. Baner-jee, J.P. Dancing Bear, John Farris, Jim Harrison, S. Kaipa, Lola, Shoneyin, Barry Spector, P Sundaralingam, Susan Suntree, Gary Synder, Eric Miles Willamson

2010 – Clifton Ross, Elizabeth Nunez, Etel Adnan, Manuel Ruben Delgado, Andrena Zawinski, Maria Espinosa, Mitch Horowitz, Ivan J. Houston

2009 – Doren Robbins, Charles L. Robinson & Al Young, Herbert Gold, Janice Blue, C. Paolo Caruso, Richard Bruce Nugent

2008 – Joanne Kyger, Rosa Martha Villarreal, Rebecca Solnit, Juan Felipe Herrera, Colleen J. McElroy, Cecil Brown, Colson Whitehead

2007 – Will Alexander, Karla Andersdatter, Kathleen de Azevedo, Steve Dalchinsky, Adam P. Kennedy, William Poy Lee, Lorena Oropeza & Dionne Espinoza, Harriet A. Washington

2006 – David Hilliard, Mike Madison, Gerald Haslam, Eric Gansworth, Jennifer Murphy, Mona Lisa Saloy, Richard Silberg, A.D. Winans

2005 – David Meltzer, Neeli Cherkovski, Derek Walcott, Jeffery Paul Chan, Suhayl Saadi, Aldon Lynn Nielson

2004 – Edgardo Vega, Noemi Sohn, Lewis Robinson, Monique Truong, Jill Nelson, Fred Reiss

2003 – Clive Matson & Allan Cohen, Gail Tsukiyama, Paul Flores, Ghada Karmi, Jack Hirschman, Luis  J. Rodriguez, Jewel Parker Rhodes

2002 – A.Van Jordon, Nathalie Handal, Myronn Hardy, Agha Shahid Ali, Charles Rubin

2001 – Mary Monroe, Dan Leone, Yehuda Amichai, Leza Lowitz, Leslie Marmon Silko, Jervey Tervalon

2000 – Jose Garcia Villa, Elmaz Abinader, Wendy Doniger, Rabbi Alan Lew, Nathan Englander, Eleanor Taylor Bland

1999 – Darryl Babe Wilson, Mike Davis, Elaine Marcus Starkman & Marsha Lee Berkman, Ruth Forman, Koon Woon, Clyde P. Taylor

1998 – John Mulligan, Ibrahim Fawal, Alfred Arteaga, Leslie Woodd, Marketa Groves

1997 – devorah major, Percival Everett, Julie Shigekuni, Michael Lally, Kevin Killian, Ray Gonzalez

1996 – Gerald Vizenor, Jerome Rotenberg & Pierre Joris, Norman Mailer, Reginald Lockett, Barbara Guest, Chitra Divakaruni

1995 – Alma Luz Villanueva, E. Ethelbert Miller, Michael McClure, Marilyn Chin, Juvenal Acosta

1994 – Peter J. Harris, Phyllis Burke, Brenda Lane Richardson, Clifford E. Trafzer, Russell Leong, Jerome Rothenberg, Paula Woods, Felix Liddell

1993 – Francisco X. Alarcon, Opal Palmer Adisa, Lucha Corpi, Sylvia Lopez-Medina, Louis Owens, Sylvia Watanabe

1992 – Luis J. Rodriguez, David Mura,  Louis Edwards, Thomas King, David Ignatow, Julia Alvarez

*1991 – Gerald Vizenor, Jess Mowry, Li-Young Lee, Gerald Haslam, Joy Harjo, Gerald Stern

GARY WEBB ANTI-CENSORSHIP AWARD:

2025 - Dr. Rupa Marya and Joy Reid

2022 - Jefferson Morley

2021 - Roxane Gay

2020 - Omarosa Manigault Newman

2019 -  Kim Shuck 

2018 - The Honorable Libby Schaaf

2016 - Museum of the African Diaspora

2015 - Lincoln Bergman

2014 – Abraham Bolden

2013 – Chris Hedges

2012 – Alexander Cockburn

2011 – WikiLeaks & Carole Simpson

2010 – Richard Prince

2009 – Jefferson Morely

2008 – Project Censored

2007 – Greg Palast

2006 – Bill Moyers

2005 – Kitty Kelley

2004 – George Julius Theodule

2003 – Sam Hamill

2002 – Barbara Lee

2001 – William Mandel, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Daniel Hernandez

2000 – Robert Parry

1999 – Mumia Abu-Jamal, Gary Webb

1998 – Gerald Nicosia

*1997 – Floyd Salas

REGINALD LOCKETT LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:

2025 - Brenda Hillman and Ethelbert Miller

2024 - Judy Juanita and Marco Portales

2023 - Louise Meriwether and the late Sarah Webster Fabio

2022 - Nellie Wong and Bruce Anderson

2021 - Genny Lim

2020 - Thomas Sanchez and Robert Sward

2019 -  Percival Everett

2018 - Ana Castillo

2016 - Clarence Major

2015 - Marvin X., Avotcja

2014 – Askia M. Toure

2013 – Jesse Douglas Taylor

2012 – Q.R. Hand

2011 – Adam David Miller

2010 – Paul Krassner, Vance Bourjaily

2009 – A.D. Winans, Harriet Rohmer, Kristin Hunter Lattany

2008 – Reginald Lockett, Adrienne Kennedy, Diane di Prima

2007 – Andy Ross

*2006 – Joyce Jenkins

ADELLE FOLEY AWARD:

2025 - Miharu Ice Cream and Mona Vaughn Scott

2024 - Nina Serrano and Dorsey Nunn

2023 - The Daily KOS and the late Joyce Wong

2022 - Rusty Morrison

2021 - Margaret Porter Troupe and Gavin Newsom

2020 - Henry Dumas

2019 - Alexandria Ocasio-Ortez

2018 - Avotcja

*2016 - Judge Shira A. Scheindlin

REGINALD MARTIN AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CRITICISM

2025 - Errand Into the Maze: the life and works of Martha Graham by Deborah Jowett (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 2024 and Helen Vendler.

2023 - Tressie McMillan Cottom

2022 - Judy Grahn, Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender and Erotic Power (Sinister Wisdom, Inc. and Nightboat Books)

*2021 - Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

*denotes first year award was given

Effective January 19th 2014, as per our new policy, the PEN OAKLAND AWARDS will NO LONGER accept either solicited or un-solicited books.