PEN/Faulkner Award

Bruce Holsinger

Bruce Holsinger

Bruce Holsinger is a novelist, literary scholar, and editor of New Literary History. He has written or edited eleven books, including four novels, most recently The Displacements and The Gifted School, which won the Colorado Book Award. His essays have appeared in The...

read more
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionClaire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories (Johns Hopkins Press, 2019) and What Happened to...

read more
Witness

Witness

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionJamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man, which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the John Leonard Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award....

read more
The Guest

The Guest

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionEmma Cline is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls and the story collection Daddy. The Girls was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle’s John...

read more
Monica

Monica

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionDaniel Clowes is an acclaimed American cartoonist, illustrator, and screenwriter. He gained fame with his comic book series Eightball, which was notable for its dark humor and commentary on modern culture. Clowes'...

read more
Open Throat

Open Throat

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionHenry Hoke is an editor at The Offing and a writer whose work has appeared in No Tokens, Triangle House, Electric Literature, and the flash noir anthology Tiny Crimes. He co-created the performance series...

read more
The Best Possible Experience

The Best Possible Experience

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionNishanth Injam received an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michi­gan. He received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Cecelia Joyce Johnson Award from the...

read more
Biography of X

Biography of X

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCatherine Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, and Pew, and the short story collection Certain American States. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New...

read more
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionJames McBride is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, the American classic The Color of Water, the novels...

read more
Absolution

Absolution

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionAlice McDermott is the author of nine novels, all published by FSG, including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This, which were finalists for the...

read more
Users

Users

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCOLIN WINNETTE’s books include Coyote, Haints Stay, and The Job of the Wasp, which was an American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Pick. Winnette’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including...

read more
Lynn Steger Strong

Lynn Steger Strong

Lynn Steger Strong is the author of the novels Hold Still, Want, and Flight, which were named best books of the year by The New Yorker, Time, Kirkus and others. She has also written non-fiction and criticism for The New York Times, The LA Times, Harper's Bazaar, Time,...

read more
Alan Michael Parker

Alan Michael Parker

Alan Michael Parker is a cartoonist, novelist, and poet; he has written or edited eighteen books, including four novels and nine collections of poems. Awards for his writing include three Pushcart Prizes, two selections in Best American Poetry, the North Carolina Book...

read more
The Book of Goose

The Book of Goose

2023 PEN/Faulkner Award WinnerYiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Must I Go, Where Reasons End, Kinder Than Solitude, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants, and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl—and the memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in...

read more
If I Survive You

If I Survive You

2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistJonathan Escoffery is the recipient of the 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review,...

read more
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistLaura Warrell is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop, and is a graduate of the creative writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in HuffPost,...

read more
Invisible Things

Invisible Things

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionMat Johnson is a Philip H. Knight Chair of the Humanities at the University of Oregon. His publications include the novels Loving Day and Pym, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the graphic novel...

read more
Self-Portrait with Ghost

Self-Portrait with Ghost

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionMeng Jin the author of Little Gods, a finalist for both the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in...

read more
The Islands

The Islands

2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistDionne Irving is originally from Toronto, Ontario. She is the author of THE ISLANDS (Catapult) and QUINT (7.13 Books)  She currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Initiative on Race and Resilience at the...

read more
Fruiting Bodies

Fruiting Bodies

2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistKathryn Harlan received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she now teaches writing. She was the recipient of the 2019 August Derleth Graduate Creative Writing Prize. Her work has appeared in the...

read more
Hawk Mountain

Hawk Mountain

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionConner Habib hosts the podcast Against Everyone with Conner Habib, which features in-depth conversations on topics as broad as punk rock, philosophy, fiction, and occultism. His writing has appeared in multiple...

read more
Does My Body Offend You?

Does My Body Offend You?

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionBorn and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra Cuevas is the author of the teen novels Does My Body Offend You? and Salty, Bitter, Sweet. Her short story Resilient was published as part of the anthology FORESHADOW. Mayra is...

read more
The Family Izquierdo

The Family Izquierdo

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionRubén Degollado is an educator from Texas and the author of The Family Izquierdo: A Novel and the young adult novel Throw. His fiction has appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and...

read more
Tiphanie Yanique

Tiphanie Yanique

Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was published in 2021, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, and was on numerous best of the year lists. Tiphanie is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas...

read more
R.O. Kwon

R.O. Kwon

R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, is being translated into seven languages and was named a best book of the year by over forty publications. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award and the...

read more
Christopher Bollen

Christopher Bollen

Christopher Bollen is the author of five novels, including A Beautiful Crime in 2020. His latest novel, The Lost Americans, will be published by Harper in March 2023. Bollen also writes for a number of publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and...

read more
The Wrong End of the Telescope

The Wrong End of the Telescope

Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionRabih Alameddine is the author of the novels An Unnecessary Woman; I, the Divine; Koolaid; The Hakawati; and the story collection The Perv. In 2019, he won the Dos Passos Prize. Purchase The Wrong End of the...

read more
Radiant Fugitives

Radiant Fugitives

Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionNawaaz Ahmed was born in Tamil Nadu, India. Before turning to writing, he was a computer scientist, researching search algorithms for Yahoo. He holds an MFA from University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and is the winner of...

read more
The President and the Frog

The President and the Frog

Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCarolina de Robertis is the author of five novels, including Cantoras, winner of both a Stonewall Book Award and a Reading Women Award, and a finalist for both the Kirkus Prize and a Lambda Literary Award; it was...

read more
Dear Miss Metropolitan

Dear Miss Metropolitan

Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCarolyn Ferrell is the author of the short-story collection Don’t Erase Me, which received the Art Seidenbaum Award of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize program, the John C. Zacharis Award given by Ploughshares, and...

read more
How Beautiful We Were

How Beautiful We Were

Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionImbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. The novel has been translated into eleven...

read more
Charles Finch

Charles Finch

Charles Finch is the author of several nationally bestselling novels, among them The Inheritance (Minotaur, 2016) and The Last Enchantments (St. Martin’s, 2014). His criticism regularly appears in The New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, New York, The Guardian, and...

read more

The 40th Anniversary PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration

Monday, May 4 at The Willard Hotel 6:30 pm, Cocktails 7:30 pm, Dinner and Award Program Join us on the 40th anniversary of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction as we celebrate this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening—our sole...

read more
Call Me Zebra

Call Me Zebra

Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi. 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award Winner

read more

Tickets Now on Sale for PEN/Faulkner’s Annual Gala!

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation's Chair, Co-Chairs, Honorary Co-Chairs, Benefit Committee, and Board of Directors request the pleasure of your company at THE 31ST ANNUAL PEN/FAULKNER GALA Saturday, October 26, 2019 Katzen Arts Center, American University 4400...

read more

Meet the Authors: 2018 Gala Edition

Though James Hannaham is an award winning author, he is also a performer and visual artist. His novel Delicious Foods was the winner of the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction as well as the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Hannaham’s novel follows three unforgettable...

read more

Meet the Authors: 2018 Gala Edition

ZZ Packer was recognized as a talented writer at the early age of 19 for her first significant publication “Sometimes You Get Lucky” in Seventeen magazine. Another of Packer’s short stories, featured  in the Debut Fiction issue of The New Yorker, became a title story...

read more

Meet the Authors: 2018 Gala Edition

David Bradley’s novel The Chaneysville Incident won the 1982 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Academy Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The novel was inspired by the discovery of the graves of runaway slaves on a farm near...

read more

Meet the Authors: 2018 Gala Edition

Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum's second novel Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist, follows the life of a seventh grade teacher as she grapples with being new to teaching, being new to the school and being newly engaged. Her first novel...

read more

2018 Award for Fiction

Announcing the 2018 Award for Fiction finalists: Hernan Diaz for In the Distance (Coffee House Press) Samantha Hunt for The Dark Dark (FSG Originals) Achy Obejas for The Tower of the Antilles (Akashic Books) Joan Silber for Improvement (Counterpoint) Jesmyn...

read more

BELONGING: The 29th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration

BELONGING: The 29th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration Monday, October 16th, 2017  |  6:00 PM NEW LOCATION: The Showroom | 1099 14th Street, NW On Monday, October 16th, 2017, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 29th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration at THE SHOWROOM in downtown...

read more

The 37th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony

The 37th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at 7:00 PM Folger Shakespeare Library Celebrating the winner as "first among equals," the 37th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare...

read more

RISK: The 28th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration

  RISK: The 28th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration Monday, September 26th, 2016  |  6:30 PM On Monday, Sept. 26th, 2016, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 28th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. This annual event supports...

read more

The 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner

The 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner May 14th, 2016 at 7:00 PM Folger Shakespeare Library Celebrating the winner as "first among equals," the 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in...

read more

The PEN/Faulkner Award Judges’ Reading

PEN/Faulkner Presents: The 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, & Sergio Troncoso Thursday, May 12th, 2016  |  7:00 PM Free and open to the public Register Here Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC...

read more

Congratulations, 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists!

Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, and Sergio Troncoso have announced their list of finalists for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 5th, and the 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be...

read more

DC – 2016 PEN/Faulkner Foundation Summer Supper & Book Club

Summer is almost here (it's true!), and while the school year is coming to a close, our Writers in Schools programming is not! Join us for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Foundation Summer Supper & Book Club and spend your summer reading great books, eating pizza and having...

read more

Meet the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalists

  On May 2, 2015, we will honor the to-be-announced winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the four finalists for the prize. Each author will read from their work and be recognized on stage by this year's judges, Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and...

read more

Congratulations 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists!

Judges Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and Deirdre McNamer have announced their list of finalists for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 7th, and the 35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be held...

read more

2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner & Finalists

On May 10, 2014 we honored the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Karen Joy Fowler, and the four finalists for the prize, Daniel Alarcón, Percival Everett, Joan Silber, and Valerie Trueblood. Each author read from their work and was recognized on stage by...

read more

2013 PEN/Faulkner Foundation Gala: “Renewal”

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Gala: “Renewal,” featuring new work composed for the evening by authors Christopher Castellani, Matt Gallagher & Roy Scranton, Yiyun Li, Anthony Marra, George Pelecanos, Mona Simpson, Christopher Tilghman, Meg Wolitzer, Tiphanie Yanique, and May Kay Zuravleff and featuring Master of Ceremonies Calvin Trillin.

read more

Winner & Finalists for 2013 Award for Fiction

About the Winner BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club (Cinco Puntos Press) Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club presents seven stories set on the south Texas border of El Paso and Juárez, examining...

read more

Benjamin Alire Sáenz Wins 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is pleased to announce that author Benjamin Alire Sáenz has been selected as the winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his collection of short fiction Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, which was published...

read more

Congratulations 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists!

2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Judges Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario, and A.J. Verdelle have announced their list of five finalists for the this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on March 19th, and the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award...

read more

The 2012 PEN/Faulkner Gala

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 24th annual Gala took place on the evening of Monday, Sept. 10th at the Folger Shakespeare Library and featured hilarious and heartbreaking readings exploring the theme of “Resilience” by Carol Anshaw, Louis Bayard, Chris Bohjalian, Ben Fountain, Major Jackson, Vaddey Ratner, Elissa Schappell, Susan Richards Shreve, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Hilma Wolitzer.

read more

Winner Announced for 2012 Award for Fiction

                                             We are pleased to announce that The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka has been selected as the winner of the 2012 PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction. It is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture...

read more

Winner & Finalists for 2012 Award for Fiction

About the Winner JULIE OTSUKAThe Buddha in the Attic(Knopf) Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture brides brought to California from Japan in the early twentieth century. In a series of eight slim,...

read more

Past Award Winners & Finalists

2018 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 Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers FINALISTS: Viet Dinh, After Disasters Louise Erdrich,...

read more

Join Our Mailing List

To make sure you never miss out on one of PEN/Faulkner’s inspiring literary programs and award celebrations, sign up for our email list.

Name
Email