Comedian and actor Murray Hill will host the PEN America Literary Awards ceremony later this month, the literary nonprofit organization announced in a news release.
Hill started his entertainment career as a drag king in New York City and hosted the Murray Hill Show at nightclubs and theaters for seven years. He went on to appear in television shows including Bored to Death and Life & Beth and played scientist and emcee Fred Rococo on three seasons of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. His memoir, Showbiz!: My Life as a Middle-Aged Man, is slated for publication in October by Gallery Books.
Presenters for the awards will include poet Cornelius Eady, playwright David Henry Hwang, actor and singer Emmy Rossum, journalist Ali Velshi, and authors Marlon James, Clara Bingham, Dan Charnas, and Qian Julie Wang.
PEN America announced the finalists for its awards in in January, alongside the winners of two special prizes: author Edwidge Danticat, who will receive the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, and playwright and screenwriter Julia Cho, who will be honored with the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award.
Hill said in a statement, “Hosting the PEN America Awards feels like the best kind of showbiz where the spotlight shines on the people brave enough to tell the truth. I grew up devouring celebrity memoirs because those stories showed me how people survive the messiest parts of life and keep going. Books gave me courage before I had much of my own, and they reminded me that freedom of expression isn’t just an idea—it’s survival. So honoring writers isn’t only glamorous, it’s a way of saying every voice deserves the stage.”
The PEN America Literary Awards ceremony will be held on March 31 at Town Hall in New York.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
