June 12, 2024, 10:52am
Science fiction writer Ted Chiang has won the 2024 PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. The award is given each year to a writer who has “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.”
Ted Chiang has published two collections of short fiction, Stories of Your Life and Others, and Exhalation, both of which have won many awards including four Hugos and four Nebulas. Award Committee Chair Jung Yun describes Chiang’s work as “an absolute wonder to behold,” and “invite readers to think, imagine, and explore unique worlds beyond their own.” She also noted that “Chiang exemplifies Bernard Malamud’s belief that a short story can produce ‘the surprise and effect of a profound knowledge in a short time.’”
Chiang joins past prize winners Edwidge Danticat, Yiyun Li, Charles Baxter, Lydia Davis, John Edgar Wideman, Amina Gautier, Joan Silber, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joy Williams, and Deborah Eisenberg.
The official bestowing of the prize will happen at the end of the year, at the Annual PEN/Malamud Award Ceremony on Friday, December 6, 2024.