2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
6 pm arrivals, 7 pm ceremony, 8 pm dinner and dessert
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Cocktail Attire
An Event to Remember for Contemporary Fiction Lovers
Our 46th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration on May 6, 2026 will honor this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening featured presentations by our judges; meaningful commentary by our winner and four finalists; and a celebration of Willee Lewis, our 2026 PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
HONOREES
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists
PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion
Willee Lewis
SPECIAL GUESTS
2026 Judges
Samantha Hunt
Tania James
De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Master of Ceremonies
Ron Charles
SPONSORS
Anne Aaron
Bloomsbury
Katherine Boone & Joshua Geltzer
Melinda & John Buntin
Susan Coll & Paul Goldberg
Becky Eason
Hachette Book Group
Ingram Content Group
Sophia McCrocklin & William Isaacson
Tracy & Gregory McGillivary
Politics & Prose
Diana Rojas
Joan H. Simmons
Ericka Taylor
Martha Anne Toll & Daniel Becker
This list is current as of February 12, 2026.
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 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...
OUR 2026 PEN/FAULKNER LITERARY CHAMPION
Willee Lewis
Willee Lewis studied English literature and education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and taught English, writing, and drama in a number of settings, including ten years as a high school instructor at the Washington International School. During a four-decade membership on the PEN/Faulkner Board of Directors, she served two terms as President. The editor of Snakes: An Anthology of Serpent Tales, Lewis served as a member of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future of the DC Library System in 2005-2006, and she remains active in several Washington-based charities and arts organizations.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES
Ron Charles
Ron Charles writes about books and publishing, most recently for The Washington Post. For a dozen years, he enjoyed teaching American literature and critical theory in the Midwest. Before moving to the District, he edited the books section of the Christian Science Monitor in Boston. His wife is an English teacher and the cinematographer of their satirical series, “The Totally Hip Video Book Review.” His awards include the Louis Shores Award for reviewing from the American Library Association, the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle, and First Place for Arts & Entertainment Commentary from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011. He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
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