Film producer and author-bookseller to receive PEN America awards

NEW YORK — Oscar-nominated producer Jason Blum is now getting some recognition from the literary world. PEN America will honor him at its fundraising gala next spring with the Business Visionary award. PEN, the century-old free expression organization, also will present author-bookseller Ann Patchett with the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award. The gala is scheduled for May 14, and, as in previous years, will be held at the American Museum of Natural History. Blum, the founder and CEO of Blumhouse, has helped oversee films ranging from "BlacKkKlansman" and "Whiplash" to "Get Out" and such horror franchises as "Paranormal Activity" and "Halloween." In announcing the awards Tuesday, PEN praised the producer for "his daring and diverse films that have transformed horror from a niche genre into a driving force of contemporary culture, often with social issues at the core." Blum, 56, said in a statement that "Horror is so much bigger and broader than people think" and that he was "very proud to have played a part in bringing it to an even wider audience." He then cited an issue at the core of PEN's mission, book bans, which he called the only thing "scarier than our movies." "A PEN America report from earlier this year found that Stephen King is the most banned author in American schools," he said. "The freedom to tell horror stories is vital to what we do every day at Blumhouse, so I'm grateful to PEN America for recognizing that, and thankful for this honor." Previous recipients of the visionary award, given for "transformative contributions to the world of literature and storytelling," include Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour and Macmillan Publishers CEO Jon Yaged. Patchett, who turned 62 on Tuesday, is known for such acclaimed and popular novels as "Bel Canto," "Commonwealth" and "The Dutch House." PEN awards the literary service prize to "a writer or advocate who has served the literary community through their words or work," and she has a legacy of both. Patchett is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and winner of the PEN/Faulkner award for "Bel Canto." Besides her own writing, Patchett has been praised for her championing of fellow authors through Parnassus Books, the Nashville-based store she co-founded in 2011 around the same time two local booksellers had closed. "I always used to think of myself as someone who should just be in a room, alone, writing books," Patchett told The Associated Press. "But the bookstore really challenged that and changed me from a person who titled inwards to a person who titled outwards." Bookselling, she added with a laugh, "just gets me out of the house." PEN interim Co-CEO Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf said in a statement that Patchett's fiction "distills the essence of the human condition with humor and heart" and that Parnassus "has evolved into a refuge for readers and writers." Other literary service honorees include Toni Morrison, Lorne Michaels and Bob Woodward.