PEN/Hemingway Award 1993: Complete list of winners

The 1993 PEN/Hemingway Award announced a remarkable arrival on the literary scene with Edward P. Jones’s Lost in the City, a collection of interconnected stories that captures the texture of life in Washington, D.C. with stunning precision and empathy. Named after Ernest Hemingway and given annually to the author of the best debut work of fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award has long served as a launching pad for writers who demonstrate the kind of craft and originality that defined Hemingway’s own spare, unflinching prose. That year’s recognition of Jones marked a significant moment in American letters, spotlighting a voice that would go on to shape contemporary fiction for decades to come.

Jones’s collection of stories set in the nation’s capital explores the interior lives of ordinary people navigating complex personal and social landscapes. Lost in the City presents Washington not as the seat of power but as a human place—intimate, sometimes troubled, always deeply felt. The PEN/Hemingway Award’s selection committee clearly recognized in Jones the kind of literary excellence and distinctive vision that the prize aims to honor, rewarding a debut that announced the presence of a major writer with something vital to say about American life.

Debut Novel

• Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones