PEN/Hemingway Keynote Address Delivered at the John F. Kennedy Library 19 April 2015

Abstract

Each year the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and PEN New England award the PEN Hemingway prize for the year’s best first work of fiction. The award is presented at a gala reception at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. The 2015 PEN Hemingway prize was awarded to Arna Bontemps Hemenway for his book, Elegy on Kinderklavier (Sarabande). This year we are pleased to present the keynote address of Ann Patchett. Patchett is author of six novels, most recently State of Wonder (2011) and numerous works on nonfiction, including This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (2013). Her books have been New York Times bestsellers and New York Times notable books. She has won many awards for her work, including the PEN/ Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize. Patchett has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. A fierce defender of independent bookstores, Patchett co-founded Parnassus Books in Nashville in 2011.