A George Mason University professor who won a prestigious creative writing award this year will have his turn in the judge’s seat.
Helon Habila, a professor of creative writing in George Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been tapped to judge the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.
The $25,000 prize purse is awarded to a writer whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories published in 2015—represents a distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise of a second work of literary fiction, according to the pen.org website.
Those picked to judge the PEN Awards are typically distinguished people in the literary world.
In February, Habila was awarded a $150,000 grant as one of the winners of the 2015 Windham Campbell Prize.
The awards, established by Donald Windham and first given in 2013, highlight literary achievement in the genres of fiction, nonfiction and drama. The grants are designed to give the recipients an opportunity to practice their work without regard to financial concerns.
Habila has received scholarships and fellowships in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. He is the author of the award-winning novels “Waiting for An Angel” and “Measuring Time.” His third novel, “Oil on Water,” was published in the U.S. in 2011.
The 2016 PEN Literary Awards winners will be announce in March. The awards ceremony is planned for April 11, 2016.