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 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 five PEN/Faulkner Award finalists, and a star-studded list of notable guests, including our PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
2021 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CELEBRATION
An Event to Remember for Contemporary Fiction Lovers
Join us for the 41st Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration on May 10, 2021 as we honor this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening will feature presentations by our judges, original readings by our five finalists, and a tribute to our inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion, LeVar Burton.
Our 2021 Judges
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
FINALIST for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionThe Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection...
Scattered Lights
Finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionThis collection of stories brings together a wide cast of characters, all connected to the Ozarks - natives and transplants, young and old, wicked and innocent, troubled and happy, God-haunted and just plain haunted....
Mother Daughter Widow Wife
Finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionWendy Doe is the woman, found on a bus to Philadelphia, has no money, no ID, and no memory of who she is, where she was going, or what she might have done. She’s assigned a name and diagnosis by the state:...
The Knockout Queen
Finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionBunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore—beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father. Michael—with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing—lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco...
Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear
Finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionMatt Kim is pretty sure he’s disappearing. His girlfriend, Yumi, is less convinced. But then she runs into someone who looks exactly like her, and her doppelgänger turns out to have dated someone who looks exactly...
Submission Guidelines
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation will be accepting submissions for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award between July 1 and October 31.
Eligibility
- Books must be published in 2021.
Authors must be living American permanent residents. - Books must be published by a juried commercial, academic, or small press.
- No self-published books are accepted.
- There are no submission fees or application forms.
- Advanced reading copies or proofs are eligible for submission for books that will be published in November or December of 2021.
All submissions must be received by October 31, 2021.
Submission Process
Please send an easy-to-read PDF of each book to awards@penfaulkner.org for forwarding to the judges.
You are invited to send as many books as you like, and you are encouraged to send available books as soon as possible. Submissions may be made by publishers, authors, and literary agents.
If you have any questions regarding the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, please send them to awards@penfaulkner.org.
2020 Winner
2020 Finalists
2019 Winner
2019 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
1999
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
Announcing the Finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Judges have selected the five finalists for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's most prestigious peer-juried literary prize. The finalists are The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by...
LeVar Burton Is Our Inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion
We are excited to announce that LeVar Burton, award-winning actor and longtime host of Reading Rainbow, has been named the inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion. Launched in...
Announcing the Longlist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
We are thrilled to announce the longlist of books for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s most prestigious peer-juried literary prize. The longlist includes the following ten titles:...
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