PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award

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According to its website, PEN Oakland was founded in 1989 by Ishmael Reed, who came up with the idea, and co-founders Floyd Salas, Reginald Lockett and Claire Ortalda, in order 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 multi-cultural work.”^[1] It affiliated with International PEN in 1990 and soon launched the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Awards for multicultural U.S. literature. In 1997, the association inaugurated its Literary Censorship Awards to protest censorship practices within the U.S. 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 also sponsored the Oakland Literature Expo portion of the City of Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival from 2001 through 2004.