PEN Oakland Awards & Winners

JOSEPHINE MILES AWARD:

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:

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:

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:

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

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.