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Last night at the Beverly Hills Hotel, PEN Center USA gave a lifetime achievement award to multi-faceted writer Larry Gelbart and its First Amendment Award to the Writers Guild. Jesse Katz of Los Angeles Magazine won in the literary journalism category for his piece on the Jordan High School academic decathlon team, and he announced from the stage that he was donating his prize check to the college fund of the team's current captain, who attended. Finalists in the category included David Zahniser for a story in the LA Weekly and Steve Oney of Los Angeles Magazine. Other winners:
Fiction DANIEL ALARCON • Lost City Radio
Creative Nonfiction JULIA WHITTY • The Fragile Edge
Research Nonfiction WILLIAM T. VOLLMAN • Poor People
Poetry JUAN FELIPE HERRERA • 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border
Children’s Literature RON KOERTGE • Strays
Translation DONALD REVELL • A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud
Drama SHEM BITTERMAN • Harm’s Way
Teleplay TERENCE WINTER • The Sopranos: The Second Coming
Screenplay PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON • There Will Be Blood
City Council President Eric Garcetti, who has traveled extensively in Myanmar, presented the Freedom to Write award in honor of Burmese poet and newspaper editor U Win Tin, recently released from 19 years as a political prisoner. Quote of the night, from emcee Lawrence O'Donnell about WGA president Patric Verrone, a pal from the Harvard Lampoon: "When Verrone was young he was stark raving mad." Runner-up, from Verrone about the guild's strike strategy: "We used the internet to win the internet." LA Observed contributors Sara Catania and Bob Baker were among the PEN judges this year (and I have been in the past.)