Founder's Day
The aspirations of our founder, novelist Mary Lee Settle, gave the world PEN/Faulkner, and starting this year, we are going to honor her every September 27 by celebrating Founder’s Day. On this day of giving, we’ll ask our community to make a small contribution in support of her vision.
The Lit Show
Award Submissions
The submission window for the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction opens July 1! Submissions for both awards will be accepted until September 30 for works published between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.
Our Awards
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation celebrates literature by giving out four major literary awards: the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and the PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion. Our goal in doing so is to honor major literary achievements and help readers discover the breadth and diversity of contemporary fiction.
Literary Programs
PEN/Faulkner brings highly acclaimed established and emerging authors together into a shared space, inviting them to discuss urgent contemporary issues through the lens of their varied perspectives. By curating a variety of public literary programs, we turn the private, individual experience of reading into an enriching, inspiring experience for a larger community, one that engages in vital civil discourse.
Literary Conversations
PEN/Faulkner brings highly acclaimed established and emerging authors together into a shared space, inviting them to discuss urgent contemporary issues through the lens of their varied perspectives. By curating Literary Conversations, we turn the private, individual experience of reading into an enriching, inspiring experience for a larger community, one that engages in vital civil discourse.
Education Programs
PEN/Faulkner provides young people with dynamic literary experiences that combine culturally relevant book donations, writing instruction, and rich discussions with authors. Our education programs work in tandem to create spaces in which students in grades 3-12 from all across DC can engage with a diverse variety of perspectives.
We currently offer: Writers in Schools, Writing Workshops, Writers in Residence, and our Nuestras Voces initiative.
An honor I am infinitely grateful to carry.
“Winning the PEN/Faulkner Award at such a delicate and trying juncture in our nation’s troubled history is an honor I am infinitely grateful to carry. It is, for me, a reminder from our mysterious universe that honest writing can allow us to speak humbly with one another, an intimation to love and to listen deeply each time I set pen to paper.”
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, author of Call Me Zebra
They are visible and their voice counts
“You know, they say if children don’t read about people who look like them or sound like them, they feel invisible. So I feel that this is an opportunity for them to see that they’re visible and that their voice does count. Not just me telling them, because I am their teacher, but somebody else telling them. Someone else showing them it’s true.”
Ms. Santiago, educator
My heart [was] brimming with joy
“I have to thank you and keep thanking you for what I want to think was a very successful and amazingly well-planned event. I left this morning with my heart brimming with joy.”
André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
Your Support Matters
Your support makes our programs possible. Please consider a contribution. Thank you.
GIVE ONLINE
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GIVE by Mail
PEN/Faulkner Foundation
6218 Georgia Avenue NW
Unit #1062
Washington, DC 20011
GIVE by phone
(202) 898-9063
GIVE by Text
Text
PENFAULKNER
to 44321