The Hemingway/PEN Foundation Award honors outstanding first works of fiction. This year’s winner is 36-year-old author Teju Cole for his novel Open City. Born in the U.S. and raised in Nigeria, he is writer in residence at Bard College. His novel was also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle in January as one of five finalists for best novel of 2011. Previous winners of the Hemingway/PEN award include Bobbie Mason, Renata Adler, Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri and Dagoberto Gilb. You can read more about Mr. Cole’s book in the Arts Beat section of The New York Times.
Laura