The PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award is for U.S. multicultural writers, to "promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the media as to the nature of multicultural work."[1][2] It was founded by PEN Oakland in 1991 and named in honor of Josephine Miles. PEN Oakland was founded in 1989. The award was dubbed the "Blue Collar PEN Award" by The New York Times.[2][3]
In 1997, Pen Oakland inaugurated its PEN Oakland/Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award to protest censorship practices within the U.S. Other awards are the PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award established in 2006; and the PEN Oakland/Adelle Foley Award established in 2016 and "given to a work, not fiction or poetry, that has done much to improve the relations between people in American society."
Although PEN Oakland unsuccessfully attempted to become the USA's third PEN center, the attempt did succeed in opening the doors for PEN Oakland to become a full chapter of the PEN Center USA. PEN Oakland also introduced a resolution for more equitable media coverage of minorities and ethnic groups. The group sponsored the Oakland Literature Expo portion of the City of Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival from 2001 through 2004.
The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN affiliates in over 145 PEN centres around the world.
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