The PEN/Malamud Award and Memorial Reading were established by Bernard Malamud’s family to honor excellence in the art of the short story. The basis of the award fund was a gift from the Malamud family.  The fund continues to grow through the generosity of friends, supporters, and Reading Series subscribers. The readings and the fund are administered by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. A panel of PEN/Faulkner directors forms the selection committee for the awards.

"I like packaging a self or two in a few pages, predicting lifetimes. The drama is terse, happens faster, and is often outlandish. A short story is a way of indicating the complexity of life in a few pages, producing the surprise and effect of a profound knowledge in a short time.”
–Bernard Malamud (1914–1986)
About Bernard Malamud

During his 37-year writing career, Bernard Malamud received the National Book Award twice, as well as the Pulitzer Prize, and the Gold Medal for lifetime achievement from the National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His published works include: The Natural, The Magic Barrel, The Fixer, and The Stories of Bernard Malamud.

2010 AWARD WINNERS
Edward P. Jones and Nam Le
(download press release here)

PEN/MALAMUD AWARD WINNERS 1988–2009
Alistair MacLeod and Amy Hempel
Cynthia Ozick and Peter Ho Davies, 2008
Elizabeth Spencer, 2007
Adam Haslett and Tobias Wolf, 2006
Lorrie Moore, 2005
Richard Bausch and Nell Freudenberger, 2004
Barry Hannah and Maile Meloy, 2003
Junot Diaz and Ursula K. Le Guin, 2002
Sherman Alexie and Richard Ford, 2001
Ann Beattie and Nathan Englander, 2000
T. Coraghessan Boyle, 1999
John Barth, 1998
Alice Munro, 1997
Joyce Carol Oates, 1996
Stuart Dybek and William Maxwell, 1995
Grace Paley, 1994
Peter Taylor, 1993
Eudora Welty, 1992
Frederick Busch and Andre Dubus, 1991
George Garrett, 1990
Saul Bellow, 1989
John Updike, 1988