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 author of the winning book receives a $15,000 prize. The authors of each of the other finalists receive $5,000. 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 PEN/Faulkner Award winner and four finalists, and a star-studded list of notable guests, including our PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
2024 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD CELEBRATION
An Event to Remember for Contemporary Fiction Lovers
Our 44th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration recently honored this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening, held on May 2, 2024 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, featured presentations by our judges; original readings by our winner Claire Jiménez, finalists Jamel Brinkley, Henry Hoke, Alice McDermott, and Colin Winnette; and a celebration of David Baldacci, our 2024 PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
Our 2025 Judges
Bruce Holsinger
Deesha Philyaw
Luis Alberto Urrea
Submission Guidelines
Publishers, literary agents, and authors may submit works of fiction (short story collections, novellas, or novels) published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. Our submission period opens July 1, 2024 and closes September 30, 2024. We encourage you to submit titles as early as possible. The judges’ reading process begins upon receipt.
Eligibility
- Each submission requires a $95 entry fee and must be submitted via our online submission platform. We no longer accept email submissions.
- Any books determined to be ineligible will still be subject to the $95 fee.
- If the fee presents a significant financial hardship to an author submitting their own book, they may request a fee waiver by emailing Sarah Silberman (sarah@penfaulkner.org). Authors requesting a fee waiver are limited to one submission per submission period. Fee waiver requests must be emailed no later than 12 PM Eastern Time on Friday, September 27.
- Publishers and literary agents are not eligible for a fee waiver.
- Authors must be living U.S. citizens or permanent residents. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible.
- Books must be published by commercial, university, or independent presses in the U.S. Books that are self-published, or published by presses that charge for production or editorial services, are not eligible.
- Translation: a translation from another language into English by the author is eligible; a translation by someone other than the author is not.
- Books published by current PEN/Faulkner board members are not eligible.
- Reprints are not eligible.
Submission Process
- We accept virtual submissions via our online submission platform only. Please submit an easy-to-read PDF (no watermarks over the body of the text) of the title.
- If you have questions about eligibility, and want to ensure you’re not charged for an ineligible entry, please contact Sarah Silberman (sarah@penfaulkner.org).
2024 Winner
2024 Finalists
Past Winners & Finalists
2023 Winner
2023 Finalists
2022 Winner
2022 Finalists
2021 Winner
2021 Finalists
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
1998
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
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