The PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award is for U.S. multicultural writers. It is to "promote works by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the media as to the nature of multicultural work." It was created by PEN Oakland in 1991. It was named in honor of Josephine Miles. PEN Oakland was created in 1989. The award was called the "Blue Collar PEN Award" by "The New York Times".