The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The most prestigious annual peer-juried literary prize in America

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honors the best published works of fiction by American permanent residents in a calendar year. Three writers are chosen annually by the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to serve as judges, ensuring that our awards selection process is free of commercial influence. These judges select an initial longlist of ten books, followed by five finalists, and finally one winner as the “first among equals.” The author of the winning book receives a $15,000 prize. The authors of each of the other finalists receive $5,000. The Award is presented at an annual celebration of the year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening features introductions by the PEN/Faulkner Award judges, original presentations by the year’s PEN/Faulkner Award winner and four finalists, and a star-studded list of notable guests, including our PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.

Celebration

Judges

submissions

Winners & Finalists

Award News

From left to right: Kathryn Harlan, Jonathan Escoffery, Dionne Irving, Yiyun Li, and Laura Warrell.

2026 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CELEBRATION

An Event to Remember for Contemporary Fiction Lovers

Our 46th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration will honor this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening, to be held on May 6, 2026 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, will feature presentations by our judges; commentary from our winner and finalists, and a celebration of Willee Lewis, our 2026 PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.

We announced our longlist in early February, and will share our finalists in March. Subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on social media to be among the first to know!

Our 2026 Judges

Samantha Hunt

Tania James

De’Shawn Charles Winslow

Submission Guidelines

Publishers, literary agents, and authors may submit works of fiction (short story collections, novellas, or novels) published between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Our submission period opens July 1, 2025 and closes September 30, 2025. We encourage you to submit titles as early as possible. The judges’ reading process begins upon receipt.

Eligibility

Each submission requires a $95 entry fee and must be submitted via our online submission platform. We no longer accept email submissions.
- Any books determined to be ineligible will still be subject to the $95 fee.
- If the fee presents a significant financial hardship to an author submitting their own book, they may request a fee waiver by emailing Sarah Silberman (sarah@penfaulkner.org). Authors requesting a fee waiver are limited to one submission per submission period. Fee waiver requests must be emailed no later than 12 PM Eastern Time on Friday, September 26.
- Publishers and literary agents are not eligible for a fee waiver.
Authors must be living U.S. citizens or permanent residents. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible.
Books must be published by commercial, university, or independent presses in the U.S. Books that are self-published, or published by presses that charge for production or editorial services, are not eligible.

Translation: a translation from another language into English by the author is eligible; a translation by someone other than the author is not.
Books published by current PEN/Faulkner board members are not eligible.
Reprints are not eligible.
Anthologies are not eligible.

Submission Process

We accept virtual submissions via our online submission platform only. Please submit an easy-to-read PDF of the finished manuscript or Advanced Reading Copy (no watermarks over the body of the text) of the title.
If you have questions about eligibility, and want to ensure you’re not charged for an ineligible entry, please contact Sarah Silberman (sarah@penfaulkner.org).

Our 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist

Dominion

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistAddie E. Citchens was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and lives in New Orleans. A graduate of Jackson State University, she studied in the Florida State University Creative Writing Program and the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop....

King of Ashes

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist A. Cosby is a New York Times bestselling writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of All the Sinners Bleed, which was on more than forty Best of the Year lists, including Barack Obama’s, as well as Edgar Award finalist...

Brother Brontë

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistFernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in South Texas. He is the author of the collections Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and Valleyesque and the novel Tears of the Trufflepig, which was...

The Devil Is a Southpaw

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistBrandon Hobson is the author of the novel The Devil is a Southpaw as well as other books. His novel Where the Dead Sit Talking was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and is...

The White Hot

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistQuiara Alegría Hudes is an American writer. Her work includes the Pulitzer Prize winning play Water by the Spoonful, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical and major motion picture In the Heights, the animated film Vivo, and the essay...

The Sisters

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistJonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of six novels, seven plays, and a collection of short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages. The Family Clause was a finalist for the National Book Award for...

Heart the Lover

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistLily King is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Euphoria and Writers & Lovers, and the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize,...

Make Your Way Home

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistCarrie R. Moore is the author of Make Your Way Home, a story collection exploring Black love and longing in the American South. Her writing has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, Oprah Daily, The Sewanee Review, American Short...

An Oral History of Atlantis

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award LonglistEd Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York...

Small Scale Sinners

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist Mahreen Sohail has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied as a Fulbright scholar. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Granta, Pushcart Prize Anthology (XLII), A Public Space, and elsewhere. She was previously a Charles...

2026 Longlist

Past Winners & Finalists

2018

WINNER:
Joan Silber, Improvement

FINALISTS:
Hernán Diaz, In The Distance
Samantha Hunt, The Dark Dark
Achy Obejas, The Tower of the Antilles
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing

2017

WINNER:
Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers

FINALISTS:
Viet Dinh, After Disasters
Louise Erdrich, LaRose
Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You
Sunil Yapa, Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist

2016

WINNER:
James Hannaham, Delicious Foods

FINALISTS:
Julie Iromuanya, Mr. and Mrs. Doctor
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Elizabeth Tallent, Mendocino Fire
Luis Alberto Urrea, The Water Museum

2015

WINNER:
Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life

FINALISTS:
Jeffery Renard Allen, Song of the Shank
Jennifer Clement, Prayers for the Stolen
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

2014

WINNER:
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

FINALISTS:
Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles
Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
Joan Silber, Fools
Valerie Trueblood, Search Party: Stories of Rescue

2013

WINNER:
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club

FINALISTS:
Amelia Gray, Threats
Laird Hunt, Kind One
T. Geronimo Johnson, Hold It ‘Til It Hurts
Thomas Mallon, Watergate

2012

WINNER:
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic

FINALISTS:
Russell Banks, The Lost Memory of Skin
Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories
Anita Desai, The Artist of Disappearance
Steven Millhauser, We Others: New and Selected Stories

2011

WINNER:
Deborah Eisenberg, The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg

FINALISTS:
Jennifer Egan, A Visit From the Goon Squad
Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule
Eric Puchner, Model Home
Brad Watson, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

2010

WINNER:
Sherman Alexie, War Dances

FINALISTS:
Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
Lorraine López, Homicide Survivors Picnic
Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs
Colson Whitehead, Sag Harbor

2009

WINNER:
Joseph O’Neill, Netherland

FINALISTS:
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Susan Choi, A Person of Interest
Richard Price, Lush Life
Ron Rash, Serena

2008

WINNER:
Kate Christensen, The Great Man

FINALISTS:
Annie Dillard, The Maytrees
David Leavitt, The Indian Clerk
T.M. McNally, The Gateway: Stories
Ron Rash, Chemistry and Other Stories

2007

WINNER:
Philip Roth, Everyman

FINALISTS:

Charles D’Ambrosio, The Dead Fish Museum
Deborah Eisenberg, Twilight of the Superheroes
Amy Hempel, The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
Edward P. Jones, All Aunt Hagar’s Children

2006

WINNER:
E.L. Doctorow, The March

FINALISTS:
Karen Fisher, A Sudden Country
William Henry Lewis, I Got Somebody in Staunton
James Salter, Last Night
Bruce Wagner, The Chrysanthemum Place

2005

WINNER:
Ha Jin, War Trash

FINALISTS:
Jerome Charyn, The Green Lantern
Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Steve Yarbrough, Prisoners of War

2004

WINNER:
John Updike, The Early Stories 1953–1975

FINALISTS:
Frederick Barthelme, Elroy Nights
ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore
Tobias Wolff, Old School

2003

WINNER:
Sabina Murray, The Caprices

FINALISTS:
Peter Cameron, The City of Your Final Destination
William Kennedy, Roscoe
Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic
Gilbert Sorrentino, Little Casino

2002

WINNER:
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto

FINALISTS:
Karen Joy Fowler, Sister Noon
Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
Claire Messud, The Hunters
Manil Suri, The Death of Vishnu

2001

WINNER:
Philip Roth, The Human Stain

FINALISTS:
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Millicent Dillon, Harry Gold
Denis Johnson, The Name of the World
Mona Simpson, Off Keck Road

2000

WINNER:
Ha Jin, Waiting

FINALISTS:
Frederick Busch, The Night Inspector
Ken Kalfus, Pu-239 And Other Russian Fantasies
Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle
Lily Tuck, Siam, or the Woman Who Shot a Man

1999

WINNER:
Michael Cunningham, The Hours

FINALISTS:
Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Brian Morton, Starting Out in the Evening
Richard Selzer, The Doctor Stories

1998

WINNER:
Rafi Zabor, The Bear Comes Home

FINALISTS:
Donald Antrim, The Hundred Brothers
Rilla Askew, The Mercy Seat
Mary Gaitskill, Because They Wanted To
Francisco Goldman, The Ordinary Seaman

1997

WINNER:
Gina Berriault, Women in their Beds

FINALISTS:
Daniel Akst, St. Burl’s Obituary
Kathleen Cambor, The Book of Mercy
Ron Hansen, Atticus
Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother

1996

WINNER:
Richard Ford, Independence Day

FINALISTS:
Madison Smartt Bell, All Souls’ Rising
William Gass, The Tunnel
Claire Messud, When the World Was Steady
A.J. Verdelle, The Good Negress

1995

WINNER:
David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars

FINALISTS:
Frederich Busch, The Children in the Woods
Ursula Hegi, Stones from the River
Joyce Carol Oates, What I Lived For
Joanna Scott, Various Antidotes

1994

WINNER:
Philip Roth, Operation Shylock

FINALISTS:
Stanley Elkin, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles
Dagoberto Gilb, The Magic of Blood
Fae Myenne Ng, Bone
Kate Wheeler, Not Where I Started From

1993

WINNER:
Annie Proulx, Postcards

FINALISTS:
Robert Olen Butler, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Francisco Goldman, The Long Night of White Chickens
Maureen Howard, Natural History
Sylvia Watanabe, Talking to the Dead

1992

WINNER:
Don DeLillo, Mao II

FINALISTS:
Stephen Dixon, Frog
Paul Gervais, Extraordinary People
Allan Gurganus, White People
Bradford Morrow, The Almanac Branch

1991

WINNER:
John Edgar Wideman, Philadelphia Fire

FINALISTS:
Paul Auster, The Music of Chance
Joanne Meschery, A Gentleman’s Guide to the Frontier
Steven Millhauser, The Barnum Museum
Joanna Scott, Arrogance

1990

WINNER:
E.L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate

FINALISTS:
Russell Banks, Affliction
Molly Gloss, The Jump-Off Creek
Josephine Jacobsen, On the Island
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Leaving Brooklyn

1989

WINNER:
James Salter, Dusk

FINALISTS:
Mary McGarry Morris, Vanished
Thomas Savage, The Corner of Rife and Pacific
Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Death of Methuselah

1988

WINNER:
T. Coraghessan Boyle, World’s End

FINALISTS:
Richard Bausch, Spirits
Alice McDermott, That Night
Cynthia Ozick, The Messiah of Stockholm
Lawrence Thornton, Imagining Argentina

1987

WINNER:
Richard Wiley, Soldiers in Hiding

FINALISTS:
Richard Ford, The Sportswriter
Charles Johnson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Janet Kauffman, Collaborators
Maureen Howard, Expensive Habits

1986

WINNER:
Peter Taylor, The Old Forest and Other Stories

FINALISTS:
William Gaddis, Carpenter’s Gothic
Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
Hugh Nissenson, The Tree of Life
Helen Norris, The Christmas Wife
Grace Paley, Later the Same Day

1985

WINNER:
Tobias Wolff, The Barracks Thief

FINALISTS:
Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra
Donald Hays, The Dixie Association
David Leavitt, Family Dancing
James Purdy, On Glory’s Courses

1984

WINNER:
John Edgar Wideman, Sent for You Yesterday

FINALISTS:
Ron Hansen, The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
William Kennedy, Ironweed
Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River
Bernard Malamud, The Stories
Cynthia Ozick, The Cannibal Galaxy

1983

WINNER:
Toby Olson, Seaview

FINALISTS:
Maureen Howard, Grace Abounding
Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh and Other Stories
George Steiner, The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
William S. Wilson, Birthplace

1982

WINNER:
David Bradley, The Chaneysville Incident

FINALISTS:
Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories
Richard Bausch, Take Me Back
Mark Helprin, Ellis Island and Other Stories
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise

1981

WINNER:
Walter Abish, How German Is It?

FINALISTS:
Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus
Walker Percy, The Second Coming
Gilbert Sorrentino, Aberration of Starlight
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

Past Award Winners

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