Journalism professor emeritus Clancy Sigal (pictured, background) was honored at PEN USA's 17th annual Literary Awards Festival on Nov. 6 with PEN's Lifetime Achievement Award. The gala event was attended by more than 500 writers and readers.
Gore Vidal (pictured, speaking) presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Sigal, novelist, screenwriter, reporter and National Book Award nominee for his memoir Going Away (listen to a brief description). Sigal spoke about growing up in Chicago where his mother was a garment worker and labor activist and how that training helped him stand strong when McCarthyism came to Hollywood and the young writer found himself blacklisted. “Fighting seemed so much more fun than pacificity,” Publishers Weekly quoted Sigal as saying.
Past recipients of the Award of Honor and Lifetime Achievement Award include: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ray Bradbury, Otis Chandler, Betty Friedan, Robert Towne, Octavia E. Butler, Carolyn See, Kevin Starr, and Billy Wilder.
