PEN USA, the West Coast center for the renowned writers’ organization International PEN, announced this month that Daniel Alarcon won its prestigious 2008 Literary Award for Fiction competition for his novel Lost City Radio. Alarcon, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is Associate Editor of Etiqueta Negra, an award-winning magazine published in his native Lima, Peru, and Visting Scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley. He is author of another work of fiction, War by Candlelight (2006 PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist). He has won numerous other prizes, including a Whiting Award (2004), Guggenheim and Lannan Fellowships (2007), and a National Magazine Award (2008).

Alarcon was selected by a distinguished panel of writers, editors and journalists. Past recipients of the Award of Honor and Lifetime Achievement Award include: Jeff Bezos, Robert Shaye, Otis Chandler, HBO, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ray Bradbury, Walter Mosley, Jane Smiley, Kevin Starr, Gloria Steinem, Robert Towne, Gore Vidal, and Billy Wilder.

Listen >> Alarcon reads from "Lost City Radio"
Read >> PEN Literary Awards Announcement