Tommy Orange won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway Award, honoring a distinguished first book of fiction, for There There (Knopf). The judges called There There a "devastatingly beautiful novel, as acutely attuned to our current cultural and political condition as it is to the indelible legacy of violence that brought us here.... The breadth and scope of this novel are matched only by the fierce and relentless intelligence that Orange brings to his characters, who despite tragedy, heartbreak and loss, reside in a remarkable world of hard-earned grace."
Orange will receive $25,000, underwritten by the Hemingway Family and the Hemingway Foundation, as well as a month-long residency fellowship at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers, valued at $10,000.
The two PEN/Hemingway runners-up were Akwaeke Emezi for Freshwater (Grove) and Ling Ma for Severance (Macmillan); and honorable mentions went to Meghan Kenny for The Driest Season (Norton) and Nico Walker for Cherry (Knopf). They each receive a Ucross Foundation residency fellowship.