PEN/Hemingway Award 2020s: A decade of winners

The 2020s have been a remarkable period for the PEN/Hemingway Award, which honors the most promising debut novelists and celebrates Hemingway’s legacy of directness and emotional truth. This five-year span has given us some of the most assured and artistically ambitious first novels in recent memory, a testament to both emerging writers finding their voice and readers hungry for fresh perspectives. From Ruchika Tomar’s A Prayer for Travelers in 2020—a lyrical meditation on displacement and faith—to the sharp, genre-bending comedy of Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby in 2022, each winner has brought something distinctly their own to American fiction.

What’s particularly striking about this decade is the geographic and thematic reach of the award’s honorees. Kawai Strong Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors brought Hawaiian storytelling traditions into urgent contemporary conversation, while Oscar Hokeah’s Calling for a Blanket Dance centered Indigenous experience with unflinching authenticity. These weren’t just debuts breaking through—they were debut authors expanding what American literature could contain, what it could hold. The PEN/Hemingway Award, with its focus on precision of language and depth of feeling, proved to be the perfect lens for recognizing this diverse wave of new voices.

Below, explore the full roster of winners from this dynamic decade and discover the stories that shaped contemporary fiction during one of publishing’s most transformative periods.

2020

Debut Novel

• A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar

2021

Debut Novel

• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn

2022

Debut Novel

• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

2023

Debut Novel

• Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

2024

Debut Novel

• Countries of Origin by Fuentes Javier