Two Minneapolis writers have won prestigious PEN America literary awards for their debut books.
Jonathan C. Slaght and Kawai Strong Washburn were honored at a virtual awards ceremony Thursday evening.
Slaght's book, "Owls of the Eastern Ice," a riveting nonfiction account of his five-year mission to locate, band, track and conserve the elusive Blakiston's fish owl in a remote corner of Russia, won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, which carries a cash prize of $10,000.
This book "takes people outside, with a capital O," something we need especially now, Slaght said in a video message from his home in Minneapolis. Plus, "there's tigers and bears and owls!" His book, Slaght said, "is a reminder that wild places still exist." His book was also longlisted for a National Book Award.
Washburn's novel "Sharks in the Time of Saviors," a haunting, magical tale of a Hawaiian working-class family touched by the gods, won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. That award, too, carries a prize of $10,000.
Speaking from his home via video, Washburn — wearing a jaunty bow tie and a small hat — seemed giddy at the news, but then grew serious.
"For me, this was a year of a lot of loss," he said. The pandemic erupted just days after his book was published in March. George Floyd was killed just a few miles from his home in May.
"To be in the middle of all that made for such a difficult year," he said. Receiving the award "is a nice silver lining to what was otherwise a dark year."
