$scalar, @array = split ' ', $_


##</code><code>##

perl -MData::Dump -lane "my($scalar,@array)=split; dd $scalar; dd @array" exampledata.txt
"A"

("another", "awesome", "awful")

"E"

("example", "estinguished")

##</code><code>##


perl -MData::Dump -lane "$HoA{$F[0]} = [ @F[1..$#F] ]; END{dd %HoA}" exampledata.txt
(
  "A",
  ["another", "awesome", "awful"],
  "E",
  ["example", "estinguished"],
)