PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist Mahreen Sohail was born in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar, and was a Writing Fellow at A Public Space and a Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East...