PEN International 2016 New Voices Award for young writers – longlist announced

Below are the top six texts selected by our panel of distinguished judges. There was an enormous response to the prize, and it was not easy to decide upon a longlist. We would like to thank all the candidates who entered the competition, the PEN Centres who nominated them and the panel of six judges for all their hard work.

The shortlist of three will be released soon; the award will be presented on September 28 during the 82nd PEN International Congress in Ourense, Spain.

JUDGES: Mircea Cărtărescu, Laia Jufresa, Lee Yew Leong, Andrei Kurkov, John Ralston Saul, Annelies Verbeke

LONGLIST:

Please Help, God Bless by Frederick J. Botha (nominated by PEN Afrikaans). Translated by Marta Behar & Marius Swart

In the Hearts of Green Birds by Robin Ganderton (nominated by Wales PEN Cymru)

The Rat, and other poems by Stefan Kielbasiewicz (nominated by English PEN)

Viertel-Neger by Julian Amankwaa (nominated by German PEN)

Manifesto by Ioana Vintila (nominated by Romanian PEN). Translated by Ioana Poenaru & James Christian Brown

Dress, Rehearse by Laura Legge (nominated by PEN Canada)