Each year, the University of Idaho’s Creative Writing Program sponsors the Hemingway Festival to honor the annual Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award recipient.

The recipient visits the University of Idaho to read and meet with students, faculty, and the community through a series of festival events. Events include readings by distinguished visiting authors, MFA faculty and students and film screening, scholarly panels, and a fundraising dinner hosted by Bloom.

About the Hemingway/PEN Award

2017's winner, Yaa Gyasi, received her award for the novel Homegoing at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. Gyasi will be honored at the 2018 Hemingway Festival which will take place in Moscow, Idaho, on March 1-3.

History

The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award was established in 1976 by the late Mary Hemingway in honor of her husband Ernest Hemingway. The University of Idaho’s Creative Writing Program partners with the foundation to honor recipients of the award. The distinction is given for a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction and includes an $8,000 prize. Previous recipients include Marilynne Robinson, Jhumpa Lahiri and Bobbi Ann Mason. The award has always been an excellent prediction of a young writer’s future success, and many winners have gone on to win Pulitzers.

For more information about the Hemingway Festival, please call the U of I English Department at 208-885-6156.