PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Winner Announced

New York City, August 28, 2012—PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, today announced the winners and runners-up of the 2012 PEN Awards, including 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 at PEN’s fall Literary Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, October 23 at 6:30 p.m. at CUNY Grad Center’s Proshansky Auditorium.

The 2012 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Winner and Runner-up are:

WINNER: James Gleick, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood (Pantheon Books)

RUNNER-UP: Donovan Hohn, Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them (Viking Books)

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. The Judges are Elizabeth Kolbert, Charles Mann, and Dava Sobel.