Mia Alvar Wins 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction

Posted on April 12, 2016

Mia Alvar has won the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction for her story collection In the Country. The award carries a $25,000 cash prize. The nine stories in the collection illuminate experiences based on the global migration of Filipinos to other countries with different cultures and how that affected the immigrants. Ms. Alvar's debut story collection won the 2015 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and landed on many top Best Books of 2015 lists.

Judges Helon Habila, Elizabeth McCracken, Edie Meidav, and Jess Row said in the citation for the award, "It is rare to find a debut of such depth and breadth, work singing with the grace of a thousand doomed lifetimes compressed into stories both luminous and empathic, populated by memorable characters facing such keenly felt challenges."

Ms. Alvar accepted the award at the ceremony in New York City last night. During her acceptance speech she said, "This book was such a private labor of love for so long, and I feel incredibly lucky that it found a team of people that cared about it almost as much as I did, if not more."

She also thanked the Filipino-American and Filipino literary community saying, "These are poets and fiction writers and everything in between who have been working for generations out of sense of urgency and love, and not always visible rewards. I thank them for the stories they’ve told and inspired me with, and also for welcoming me so generously into their conversation -- or party, more accurately."

Lauren Redniss, Rick Barot, and Ta-Nehisi Coates also picked up PEN Awards, which were given live for the very first time. You can see the full list of winners here.