New York City, June 5, 2012—PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, joined Barbara Kingsolver, founder of the Bellwether Prize, and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing, to announce Susan Nussbaum as the winner of the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Nussbaum received $25,000 and a publishing contract with Algonquin Books for her manuscript Good Kings Bad Kings.
Nussbaum traveled to New York City for the announcement, which was made by Barbara Kingsolver at BookExpo America, in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Kingsolver and Nussbaum were joined by PEN president Peter Godwin, Algonquin Books, and previous Bellwether winners Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell from the Sky) and Hillary Jordan (Mudbound) at the press conference for editors, publishers, agents, press, booksellers, and librarians from around the country. (Click http://www.algonquinbooksblog.com/blog/pen-bellwether-prize/ for more information.)
