37th Annual PEN Oakland Awards
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Tennessee Reed
[email protected]
PEN Oakland announces the winners of the Thirty-Seventh Annual
PEN OAKLAND AWARDS
Ceremony, Saturday, December 5, 2026, 2:00 P.M.
Oakland, CA—PEN Oakland announces the winners of the Thirty-Seventh Annual PEN OAKLAND AWARDS. The 2026 PEN Oakland Award winners will be formally recognized on Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 2:00 P.M., at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Avenue, Oakland, CA.
Called “The Blue Collar PEN” by The New York Times, and from the city that gave us Jack London, Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, Huey Newton, Floyd Salas, Gertrude Stein, Shawn Wong, William Wong, Sarah Fabio, Tommy Orange and where Anne Rice, Maya Angelou, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Chester Himes once lived, comes the scrappiest of book awards--one with no corporate ties. An award whose recipients are chosen by working writers, and not hedge fund operators or crypto technocrats.
The 2026 PEN Oakland Award Winners
The Ceremony will Go as Follows:
Josephine Miles Awards:
Walter Mosley
Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right: A King Oliver Novel
(Little, Brown and Company)
Kalehua Kim
Mele: Poems (Trio House Press)
Mac Crane
A Sharp Endless Need (The Dial Press)
C.J. Farley
Who Knows You by Heart (William Morrow)
Cathy Linh Che
Becoming Ghost (Washington Square Press)
Devorah Major
Word Time (City Lights Books)
Michael Thomas
The Broken King (Grove Press)
Thea Matthews
Grime (City Lights Books)
Marcus Rediker
Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea (Viking)
Jack and Adelle Foley Award:
Peter Nicks, filmmaker
William Hearst, III, publisher of “Alta Magazine,” philanthropist
Reginald C. Martin Award for Excellence in Criticism:
Playthell Benjamin, public intellectual
Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award:
Paul Cobb, publisher of “The Oakland Post”
Boots Riley, filmmaker, rapper, activist and community organizer
Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award:
Wesley Brown, novelist
Carolyn Forche, poet
The 2026 Board of Directors of PEN Oakland
Opal Palmer Adisa, Robert Mailer Anderson, Carla Blank, Judith Cody, Lucille Lang Day,
Cheryl Fabio, Emil Guillermo, Judy Juanita, Herb Kohl, D. Scot Miller, Linda Noel,
Ishmael Reed, Tennessee Reed, Tess Taylor, Maw Shein Win, Michael Young
Contact: Tennessee Reed
[email protected]
PEN Oakland announces the winners of the Thirty-Seventh Annual
PEN OAKLAND AWARDS
Ceremony, Saturday, December 5, 2026, 2:00 P.M.
Oakland, CA—PEN Oakland announces the winners of the Thirty-Seventh Annual PEN OAKLAND AWARDS. The 2026 PEN Oakland Award winners will be formally recognized on Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 2:00 P.M., at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Avenue, Oakland, CA.
Called “The Blue Collar PEN” by The New York Times, and from the city that gave us Jack London, Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, Huey Newton, Floyd Salas, Gertrude Stein, Shawn Wong, William Wong, Sarah Fabio, Tommy Orange and where Anne Rice, Maya Angelou, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Chester Himes once lived, comes the scrappiest of book awards--one with no corporate ties. An award whose recipients are chosen by working writers, and not hedge fund operators or crypto technocrats.
The 2026 PEN Oakland Award Winners
The Ceremony will Go as Follows:
Josephine Miles Awards:
Walter Mosley
Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right: A King Oliver Novel
(Little, Brown and Company)
Kalehua Kim
Mele: Poems (Trio House Press)
Mac Crane
A Sharp Endless Need (The Dial Press)
C.J. Farley
Who Knows You by Heart (William Morrow)
Cathy Linh Che
Becoming Ghost (Washington Square Press)
Devorah Major
Word Time (City Lights Books)
Michael Thomas
The Broken King (Grove Press)
Thea Matthews
Grime (City Lights Books)
Marcus Rediker
Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea (Viking)
Jack and Adelle Foley Award:
Peter Nicks, filmmaker
William Hearst, III, publisher of “Alta Magazine,” philanthropist
Reginald C. Martin Award for Excellence in Criticism:
Playthell Benjamin, public intellectual
Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award:
Paul Cobb, publisher of “The Oakland Post”
Boots Riley, filmmaker, rapper, activist and community organizer
Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award:
Wesley Brown, novelist
Carolyn Forche, poet
The 2026 Board of Directors of PEN Oakland
Opal Palmer Adisa, Robert Mailer Anderson, Carla Blank, Judith Cody, Lucille Lang Day,
Cheryl Fabio, Emil Guillermo, Judy Juanita, Herb Kohl, D. Scot Miller, Linda Noel,
Ishmael Reed, Tennessee Reed, Tess Taylor, Maw Shein Win, Michael Young
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Where is it happening?
5366 College Ave, Oakland, CA 94618-1417, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherPEN Oakland
