Dr. Carl Hart Receives the 2014 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

New York City, July 30, 2014—PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s leading literary and human rights organization, announced today the winners and runners-up of the 2014 PEN Literary Awards, the most comprehensive literary awards program in the country. Among the awards is the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, which celebrates writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences. The winner receives a cash award of $10,000 and will be honored at the PEN Literary Awards.

The 2014 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Winner is:

Dr. Carl Hart, High Price (Harper)

From the Judges’ Citation

“The lifetime of research that is the foundation for High Price stretches from the streets of Miami’s hood to the labs of Columbia University. In drawing on such a broad range of resources, neuroscientist Carl Hart demonstrates how personal experience and scientific study can inform and validate each other for a deeper understanding of human behavior and addiction. Dr. Hart’s unflinching view of his past, along with his rigorous academic inquiry, make for a document of innovative thinking and profound humanity. Written with clarity, honesty, and courage, High Price offers a compelling argument to reconsider this country’s policies on drug use, which have proved so ineffective not only from a legal standpoint, but from medical and social perspectives as well.”

2014 Judges
Akiko Busch, Rivka Galchen, and Eileen Pollack

Shortlist
The End of Night (Little, Brown and Company), Paul Bogard
Five Days at Memorial (Crown), Sheri Fink
High Price (Harper), Carl Hart
Surfaces and Essences (Basic Books), Douglas Hofstadter & Emmanuel Sander
Wild Ones (Penguin Press), Jon Mooallem

Longlist
Frankenstein’s Cat (Scientific American / Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Emily Anthes

The End of Night (Little, Brown and Company), Paul Bogard

Five Days at Memorial (Crown), Sheri Fink

High Price (Harper), Carl Hart
Surfaces and Essences (Basic Books), Douglas Hofstadter & Emmanuel Sander

Wild Ones (Penguin Press), Jon Mooallem

Gulp (W.W. Norton & Company), Mary Roach

Weird Life (W.W. Norton & Company), David Toomey

What the Dog Knows (Touchstone), Cat Warren

Paleofantasy (W.W. Norton & Company), Marlene Zuk

Previous Winners
Leonard Mlodinow
James Gleick
Siddhartha Mukherjee

The PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award was founded by scientist and author Dr. Edward O. Wilson, activist and actor Harrison Ford, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.The inaugural award was conferred in 2011.

Award winners and runners-up will be honored at the 2014 PEN Literary Awards Ceremony on Monday, September 29, 2014, at the New School’s auditorium at 66 West 12th Street in New York City. Read the full list of the 2014 PEN Literary Award winners on the PEN American Center’s website.

Read more:
“James Wolcott and Frank Bidart Among 2014 PEN American Winners” in The New York Times  (July 30, 2014)

“Winners of the 2014 PEN Literary Awards” in The Washington Post  (July 30, 2014)

“Carl Hart, Columbia University Scientist, Confronts Drug War In ‘High Price'” in the Huffington Post  (May 31, 2013)

Author photograph of Carl Hart © Eileen Barroso.