PEN/Hemingway Award 2021: Complete list of winners

The 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award recognized one of the year’s most remarkable literary achievements with its Debut Novel honor going to Kawai Strong Washburn for Sharks in the Time of Saviors. This prestigious award, which honors Ernest Hemingway’s legacy by recognizing outstanding debuts and first works of fiction, continues its tradition of spotlighting fresh voices that demonstrate the kind of precise, powerful prose that would make the award’s namesake proud. Washburn’s multigenerational family saga set in Hawaii and Las Vegas immediately established him as a major talent, blending Hawaiian cultural specificity with universal themes of belonging, faith, and survival.

The PEN/Hemingway Award holds particular significance in the literary world as one of the most competitive honors for debut authors, attracting submissions from publishers across the country each year. By selecting Washburn’s work, the award committee signaled both the novel’s exceptional craftsmanship and its cultural resonance—a story rooted in specific Pacific Island traditions that speaks to broader American experiences. The novel traces a family’s intersection with a charismatic televangelist and charts their individual journeys across decades, demonstrating the kind of narrative ambition and emotional depth that defines a career-launching debut.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of the 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award winners, along with details about what makes this year’s selections such an important moment in contemporary fiction.

Debut Novel

• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn