Julia Cho Will Receive the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award

PEN America announced that comedian, author, producer, and actor Murray Hill, known for HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, will host the 62nd annual PEN America Literary Awards, on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30pm at The Town Hall (123 W 43rd St) in New York City. Joining Hill are presenters and performers spanning the worlds of literature, journalism, theater, and media for a ceremony awarding $350,000 in prizes across ten book categories. The evening will feature career-achievement honors for novelist Edwidge Danticat and playwright Julia Cho. 

Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, Co-Chief Executive Officer at PEN America said, “What’s most striking about these awards is their incredible diversity and the astounding range of stories and perspectives they represent. The books come from big publishers and tiny indie presses alike, and our honorees and presenters include debut authors and literary legends from every corner, color, and creed, working across every genre of literature. They write about small towns, sprawling cities and lands far, far away. This is a night to stand up in celebration of writers, the power of imagination, and the truth that our diversity is not a weakness, but, rather, our greatest strength.” 

Hill said, “Hosting the PEN America Awards feels like the best kind of showbiz where the spotlight shines on the people brave enough to tell the truth. I grew up devouring celebrity memoirs because those stories showed me how people survive the messiest parts of life and keep going. Books gave me courage before I had much of my own, and they reminded me that freedom of expression isn’t just an idea—it’s survival. So honoring writers isn’t only glamorous, it’s a way of saying every voice deserves the stage.”

The PEN America Literary Awards, described as the “Oscars, but for books” by former host Seth Meyers, combine moving award presentations with live music, theatrical performances, and an In Memoriam segment honoring the literary greats lost over the last year. 

This year’s presenters include author and journalist Clara Bingham (The Movement, Witness to the Revolution); music journalist and author Dan Charnas (Dilla Time); poet and Cave Canem co-founder Cornelius Eady (Brutal Imagination, Hardheaded Weather, Pulitzer finalist The Gathering of My Name); Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face); Booker Prize-winning novelist Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Disappearers forthcoming 2026); actor and singer Emmy Rossum (Shameless); MS NOW anchor and author Ali Velshi (Small Acts of Courage); and author and civil rights litigator Qian Julie Wang (Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood). 

The evening will also feature musical performances by Amber Iman (Broadway: Lempicka, Tony nomination; Nina Simone in Soul Doctor; Shuffle Along…) and the Ulysses Owens Jr. Band, led by the GRAMMY Award–winning drummer and percussionist.

In celebration of Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat’s (Everything Inside; Krik? Krak!; Brother, I’m Dying) PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, Haitian-American actor Pascale Armand (Broadway: Eclipsed, Tony nomination) will give a world-premiere reading from Dèy, Danticat’s forthcoming novel (Knopf, August 2026). Set between Haiti, Brooklyn and Miami, Dèy follows a Haitian-American woman whose understanding of self is upended after a random act of violence on a sunny Florida day. Since her 1994 debut novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, Danticat has reshaped contemporary fiction and non-fiction with powerful explorations of identity and the diaspora, and her work on immigration and detention has become essential for generations of writers.

In honor of playwright Julia Cho’s (99 Histories; Office Hour; The Language Archive) PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, actress Sue Jean Kim will perform an excerpt from Cho’s play Aubergine, directed for the occasion by Obie Award-winner Eric Ting (The Far Country, The Comeuppance). Kim previously appeared in Cho’s play Office Hour (Public Theater) and performed in the New York premiere of Aubergine at Playwrights Horizons in 2016, a production the New York Times praised as “A sensitive, cleareyed drama with excellent acting.” In their citation, the judges wrote that Cho is “a master of subtlety and nuance” whose writing “demands our empathy.” 

The list of the 50 finalists, whose work spans fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essays, science writing, and translation, along with the judges for each award, can be found here.