We are thrilled to announce the longlist of books for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction:
- Witness by Jamel Brinkley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- The Guest by Emma Cline (Random House)
- Monica by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
- Open Throat by Henry Hoke (MCD)
- The Best Possible Experience by Nishanth Injam (Pantheon)
- What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez (Grand Central)
- Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead)
- Absolution by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Users by Colin Winnette (Soft Skull)
“This year’s list is a powerful reminder that American literature matters more than ever,” said PEN/Faulkner Awards Committee Chair Louis Bayard. “We are delighted to celebrate these gifted authors and the multivarious worlds they have brought to life.”
In selecting the longlist, this year’s judges—Xochitl Gonzalez, Alan Michael Parker, and Lynn Steger Strong—considered 445 eligible novels and short story collections by American authors published in the US during the 2023 calendar year. Submissions came from 205 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. From this longlist, the judges will select five finalists for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Those finalists will be announced in early March. The winning book—the “first among equals,” selected from among the five finalists—will be announced in April.
ABOUT OUR 2024 JUDGES
Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming. Named a Best of 2022 by the New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR, Olga Dies Dreaming was the winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction and the New York City Book Awards. Gonzalez is a 2021 M.F.A. graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her non-fiction work has been published in Elle Decor, Allure, Vogue, Real Simple, and The Cut. Her commentary writing for The Atlantic was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe.
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 Award, and the Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America. His essays, stories, and poems have appeared in The Believer, the New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker (where he reviewed books for nine years), the New Republic, the Paris Review, and Salon; in 2021, he judged the National Book Award in fiction. Houchens Professor of English at Davidson College, he contributes a cartoon each Friday to Identity Theory. His next book will be a collection of flash fiction and Bingo cards, Bingo Bango Boingo (Dzanc Books, 2024).
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, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia and Princeton Universities.
ABOUT THE PEN/FAULKNER FOUNDATION
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation champions the breadth and power of fiction in America. We achieve that mission by administering the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story to help call the world’s attention toward literary achievements; by bringing free books and authors into under-resourced DC schools to inspire the next generation of readers and writers; and by curating public literary programs to amplify the work of accomplished authors.
SAVE THE DATE
We hope you will join PEN/Faulkner for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration on May 2, 2024 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Washington, DC.