This year’s award recipients include Joan Didion, Lifetime Achievement Award (to be presented by none other than Harrison Ford!); Filmmaker Sonia Nassery Cole, Freedom to Write Award, Kickstarter founders Perry Chen, Charles Adler and Yancey Strickler, Award of Honor, Ramona Ausubel, fiction for her novel “Nobody Is Here Except All of Us,” Seth Rosenfeld, research nonfiction prize for “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power”; Joy Harjo, creative nonfiction for “Crazy Brave”; Mark Boal for his screenplay for Zero Dark Thirty; Danny Strong, who wins for his teleplay for HBO’s “Game Change”; Amanda Auchter in poetry for The Wishing Tomb; Philip Boehm, for translation of “An Ermine in Czernopol,” originally by Gregor von Rezzori; Michael Harmon in children’s literature for “Under the Bridge”; Ed Leibowitz for journalism for “The Takeover Artist” in Los Angeles Magazine; and Dan O’Brien for drama with “The Body of an American.” Here’s the first official write-up in the Los Angeles Times.
First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you for your support over these past few years. It has meant so incredibly much to me. The last two years have been strenuous and difficult to say the least, and even a five minute phone call from some at one time or another has made all of the difference.
Here’s the kicker: PEN Center USA will be giving out “swag bags” at the awards dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel in October. They are requesting 500 copies of The Wishing Tomb to include in these bags. However, Perugia Press, which is currently celebrating its 16th Anniversary, is a smaller press, and 500 additional copies is a lot to give away for free, even to such a prestigious event such as the PEN Center Awards. Perugia Press, as a result, is holding a fundraiser to help offset the costs of sending so many copies of my book to the awards festival.
How you can help: Here is the link to the information about the Perugia Press Fundraiser to send The Wishing Tomb to the 2013 PEN Center USA Literary Awards Festival. Any amount will help, if you can. The cost to Perugia is $5/book, so even $25 will add up. I dislike asking for donations in general, but I think it’s important to get not only my work out there, but to have a smaller press represented on a national scale. Let’s get poetry in the hands of the 500 attendees!
Thank you, again, for your support and encouragement. I hope you can help send this book to the PEN Center USA Literary Awards Festival this October! If you have any questions, please contact me!
Books & Baubles 