Bruce Holsinger is a novelist, literary scholar, and editor of New Literary History. He has written or edited eleven books, including four novels, most recently The Displacements and The Gifted School, which won the Colorado Book Award. His essays have appeared in The...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionClaire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories (Johns Hopkins Press, 2019) and What Happened to...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionJamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man, which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the John Leonard Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award....
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionEmma Cline is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls and the story collection Daddy. The Girls was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle’s John...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionDaniel Clowes is an acclaimed American cartoonist, illustrator, and screenwriter. He gained fame with his comic book series Eightball, which was notable for its dark humor and commentary on modern culture. Clowes'...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionHenry Hoke is an editor at The Offing and a writer whose work has appeared in No Tokens, Triangle House, Electric Literature, and the flash noir anthology Tiny Crimes. He co-created the performance series...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionNishanth Injam received an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. He received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Cecelia Joyce Johnson Award from the...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCatherine Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, and Pew, and the short story collection Certain American States. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionJames McBride is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, the American classic The Color of Water, the novels...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionAlice McDermott is the author of nine novels, all published by FSG, including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This, which were finalists for the...
Longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCOLIN WINNETTE’s books include Coyote, Haints Stay, and The Job of the Wasp, which was an American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Pick. Winnette’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including...
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,...
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...
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award WinnerYiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Must I Go, Where Reasons End, Kinder Than Solitude, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants, and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl—and the memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in...
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistJonathan Escoffery is the recipient of the 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review,...
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistLaura Warrell is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop, and is a graduate of the creative writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in HuffPost,...
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionMat Johnson is a Philip H. Knight Chair of the Humanities at the University of Oregon. His publications include the novels Loving Day and Pym, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the graphic novel...
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionMeng Jin the author of Little Gods, a finalist for both the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in...
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistDionne Irving is originally from Toronto, Ontario. She is the author of THE ISLANDS (Catapult) and QUINT (7.13 Books) She currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Initiative on Race and Resilience at the...
2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction FinalistKathryn Harlan received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she now teaches writing. She was the recipient of the 2019 August Derleth Graduate Creative Writing Prize. Her work has appeared in the...
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionConner Habib hosts the podcast Against Everyone with Conner Habib, which features in-depth conversations on topics as broad as punk rock, philosophy, fiction, and occultism. His writing has appeared in multiple...
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionBorn and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra Cuevas is the author of the teen novels Does My Body Offend You? and Salty, Bitter, Sweet. Her short story Resilient was published as part of the anthology FORESHADOW. Mayra is...
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionRubén Degollado is an educator from Texas and the author of The Family Izquierdo: A Novel and the young adult novel Throw. His fiction has appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and...
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was published in 2021, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, and was on numerous best of the year lists. Tiphanie is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas...
R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, is being translated into seven languages and was named a best book of the year by over forty publications. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award and the...
Christopher Bollen is the author of five novels, including A Beautiful Crime in 2020. His latest novel, The Lost Americans, will be published by Harper in March 2023. Bollen also writes for a number of publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and...
Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionRabih Alameddine is the author of the novels An Unnecessary Woman; I, the Divine; Koolaid; The Hakawati; and the story collection The Perv. In 2019, he won the Dos Passos Prize. Purchase The Wrong End of the...
Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionNawaaz Ahmed was born in Tamil Nadu, India. Before turning to writing, he was a computer scientist, researching search algorithms for Yahoo. He holds an MFA from University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and is the winner of...
Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCarolina de Robertis is the author of five novels, including Cantoras, winner of both a Stonewall Book Award and a Reading Women Award, and a finalist for both the Kirkus Prize and a Lambda Literary Award; it was...
Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionCarolyn Ferrell is the author of the short-story collection Don’t Erase Me, which received the Art Seidenbaum Award of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize program, the John C. Zacharis Award given by Ploughshares, and...
Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionImbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. The novel has been translated into eleven...
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Louise Erdrich
Eugenia Kim
Rebecca Makkai
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Scattered Lights by Steve Wiegenstein
Mother Daughter Widow Wife by Robin Wasserman
The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe
Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear by Matthew Salesses
Deesha Philyaw
Luis Alberto Urrea
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
The Night Swimmers by Peter Rock
Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
Charles Finch is the author of several nationally bestselling novels, among them The Inheritance (Minotaur, 2016) and The Last Enchantments (St. Martin’s, 2014). His criticism regularly appears in The New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, New York, The Guardian, and...
Bernice L. McFadden
Alexi Zentner
Rion Amilcar Scott, Author
Board Member
Monday, May 4 at The Willard Hotel 6:30 pm, Cocktails 7:30 pm, Dinner and Award Program Join us on the 40th anniversary of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction as we celebrate this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening—our sole...
Don’t Skip Out on Me by Willy Vlautin
Love War Stories by Ivelisse Rodriguez
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd
Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi. 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award Winner
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation's Chair, Co-Chairs, Honorary Co-Chairs, Benefit Committee, and Board of Directors request the pleasure of your company at THE 31ST ANNUAL PEN/FAULKNER GALA Saturday, October 26, 2019 Katzen Arts Center, American University 4400...
The 2019 PEN/Faulkner Gala will be held on Saturday, October 26th at the Katzen Arts Center at American University! Don't miss out on this evening of incredible literature!
Though James Hannaham is an award winning author, he is also a performer and visual artist. His novel Delicious Foods was the winner of the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction as well as the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Hannaham’s novel follows three unforgettable...
ZZ Packer was recognized as a talented writer at the early age of 19 for her first significant publication “Sometimes You Get Lucky” in Seventeen magazine. Another of Packer’s short stories, featured in the Debut Fiction issue of The New Yorker, became a title story...
David Bradley’s novel The Chaneysville Incident won the 1982 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Academy Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The novel was inspired by the discovery of the graves of runaway slaves on a farm near...
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum's second novel Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist, follows the life of a seventh grade teacher as she grapples with being new to teaching, being new to the school and being newly engaged. Her first novel...
Tickets and Sponsorships Now Available! We cordially invite you to attend the PEN/Faulkner Gala on Monday, September 24, 2018. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this special event, a unique evening in Washington, DC, that celebrates important voices in...
Announcing the 2018 Award for Fiction finalists: Hernan Diaz for In the Distance (Coffee House Press) Samantha Hunt for The Dark Dark (FSG Originals) Achy Obejas for The Tower of the Antilles (Akashic Books) Joan Silber for Improvement (Counterpoint) Jesmyn...
BELONGING: The 29th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration Monday, October 16th, 2017 | 6:00 PM NEW LOCATION: The Showroom | 1099 14th Street, NW On Monday, October 16th, 2017, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 29th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration at THE SHOWROOM in downtown...
The 37th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at 7:00 PM Folger Shakespeare Library Celebrating the winner as "first among equals," the 37th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare...
RISK: The 28th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration Monday, September 26th, 2016 | 6:30 PM On Monday, Sept. 26th, 2016, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 28th Annual PEN/Faulkner Celebration at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. This annual event supports...
The 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner May 14th, 2016 at 7:00 PM Folger Shakespeare Library Celebrating the winner as "first among equals," the 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in...
PEN/Faulkner Presents: The 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, & Sergio Troncoso Thursday, May 12th, 2016 | 7:00 PM Free and open to the public Register Here Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC...
Judges Abby Frucht, Molly McCloskey, and Sergio Troncoso have announced their list of finalists for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 5th, and the 36th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be...
Spark: The 27th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Celebration Monday, October 5th, 2015 | 6:30 PM On Monday, Oct. 5th, 2015, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 27th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Celebration at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington,...
Celebrating the winner as “first among equals,” the 35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony & Dinner will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 2, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
Summer is almost here (it's true!), and while the school year is coming to a close, our Writers in Schools programming is not! Join us for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Foundation Summer Supper & Book Club and spend your summer reading great books, eating pizza and having...
On May 2, 2015, we will honor the to-be-announced winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the four finalists for the prize. Each author will read from their work and be recognized on stage by this year's judges, Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and...
Judges Alexander Chee, Marc Fitten, and Deirdre McNamer have announced their list of finalists for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on April 7th, and the 35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be held...
On Monday, Oct. 6th 2014, PEN/Faulkner will hold its 26th Annual Gala fundraiser at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. This annual event supports the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and our Writers in Schools programming and features some of...
35th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Reading
On May 10, 2014 we honored the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Karen Joy Fowler, and the four finalists for the prize, Daniel Alarcón, Percival Everett, Joan Silber, and Valerie Trueblood. Each author read from their work and was recognized on stage by...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Gala: “Renewal,” featuring new work composed for the evening by authors Christopher Castellani, Matt Gallagher & Roy Scranton, Yiyun Li, Anthony Marra, George Pelecanos, Mona Simpson, Christopher Tilghman, Meg Wolitzer, Tiphanie Yanique, and May Kay Zuravleff and featuring Master of Ceremonies Calvin Trillin.
About the Winner BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club (Cinco Puntos Press) Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club presents seven stories set on the south Texas border of El Paso and Juárez, examining...
Join Us in CelebratingThe 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Honorees At the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner 33rd PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & DinnerHonoring Authors:Amelia Gray | Laird Hunt | T. Geronimo Johnson...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is pleased to announce that author Benjamin Alire Sáenz has been selected as the winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his collection of short fiction Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, which was published...
2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Judges Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario, and A.J. Verdelle have announced their list of five finalists for the this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced on March 19th, and the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award...
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s 24th annual Gala took place on the evening of Monday, Sept. 10th at the Folger Shakespeare Library and featured hilarious and heartbreaking readings exploring the theme of “Resilience” by Carol Anshaw, Louis Bayard, Chris Bohjalian, Ben Fountain, Major Jackson, Vaddey Ratner, Elissa Schappell, Susan Richards Shreve, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Hilma Wolitzer.
We are pleased to announce that The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka has been selected as the winner of the 2012 PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction. It is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture...
About the Winner JULIE OTSUKAThe Buddha in the Attic(Knopf) Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic is a precise, poetic novel that tells the story of Japanese picture brides brought to California from Japan in the early twentieth century. In a series of eight slim,...
2018 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 Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers FINALISTS: Viet Dinh, After Disasters Louise Erdrich,...
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