PEN Texas and PEN New Mexico collaborated to present the inaugural PEN Southwest Book Awards to honor excellence in writing by PEN members on Saturday, October 22, 2005, in a public ceremony held at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. A keynote address by Donald Lamm, whose forty-four-year career at W. W. Norton & Company encompassed the roles of editor, president and former chairman of the independent publisher, and a talk on “Writers in the New Global Community” by PEN USA President Kate Gale were also a draw for the standing room only event.
The winners of the Southwest Book Awards were announced and presented with $500 prizes in each of three categories at the festive awards ceremony.
FICTION
Rod Davis, Corina’s Way, NewSouth Books
POETRY
Lise Goett, Waiting for the Paraclete, Beacon Press
NON-FICTION
Malka Drucker, White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America, Skylight Paths Publishing
FINALISTS
Fiction
Rudolfo Anaya, Serafina’s Stories, University of New Mexico Press
Lisa Lenard-Cook, Dissonance, University of New Mexico Press
Poetry
Kay Barnes, Mortal Means, Cherry Grove Collections
Frederick Turner, Paradise, David Roberts Books
Non-Fiction
Carroll Pickett, Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain, St. Martin’s Press
Diane Thiel, The White Horse: A Colombian Journey, Etruscan Press
