Elmore Leonard to receive PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award

PEN USA has selected crime novelist Elmore Leonard to receive the organization's lifetime achievement award at a December ceremony. In announcing its selection, the organization stated "In a career spanning 60 years, Leonard has published 43 novels and numerous short stories, creating a distinct literary style that has delighted readers and influenced a new generation of writers. Books like Swag, LaBrava, Freaky Deaky, and Tishomingo Blues are not only classics of the crime genre, but some of the best writing of the last half century. Leonard’s most recent novel, Road Dogs, has received some of the best reviews of his career. He is currently finishing his next book, entitled Djibouti, to be published in 2010."
PEN USA's membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators