Pulitzer winner Tony Kushner will receive the 2024 Pen/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance award in honor of his career.
Presented April 29 at the 2024 PEN America Literary Awards, hosted by Academy Award-nominated writer and comedian Jena Friedman, the ceremony will be the 60th annual event honoring writers.
The PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award is career-achievement award that honors a writer whose transformative work enlightens and inspires audiences in the tradition of comedian and filmmaker Mike Nichols. Previous winners have included Kenneth Lonergan, Tom Stoppard, George C. Wolfe, Elaine May, and Tina Fey.
Said Kushner, “It’s intimidating enough that this honor is named after Mike Nichols. No one ever understood better than him the ways words can be made to perform. But then there’s the list of past recipients, each and every one a writer I adore. To say I feel unworthy is not to say I’m not gleefully accepting! I loved working with Mike; he was a magnificent artist and a dear friend. I’m always pleased to be associated with PEN, whose work promoting and protecting writers is even more vitally important in turbulent, troubled times like ours.”
Kushner will receive the award from Academy Award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden and Golden Globe-winning actor Rachel Zegler, both of whom were catapulted to acclaim by their breakout performances in works by Kushner. Harden made her Broadway debut playing Harper Pitt in the original Broadway production of Angels in America, and Zegler earned a Golden Globe award for her first film role, playing Maria in Kushner’s and Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story.
The ceremony will also recognize the legacy of the late novelist and critic Maryse Condé, who will be posthumously honored with the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The award is given annually to a writer whose work represents the highest level of achievement in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and/or drama, and is of enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship. Additionally, playwright Guadalís Del Carmen will receive the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, and poet and translator Suzanne Jill Levine will receive the PEN/Ralph Manheim Award for Translation.
The evening will feature music and performances by Liisi Lafontaine (Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Dreamgirls) and Tony winner J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like it Hot, Mrs. Doubtfire). The evening will also feature musical direction and percussion by Ulysses Owens, Jr.
The PEN Literary Awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning authors, editors, translators, and critics. To view the awards’ longlist, visit here.
