The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize honoring "the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year." It is the largest peer-juried award in the country.
The award was founded in 1980 by members of the international writers’ organization PEN and is now governed by an independent foundation board. Named for William Faulkner, who used his Nobel Prize money to create an award for young writers, the aim of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation is to bring together "American writers and readers in a wide variety of programs to promote a love of literature."
So far, I have read 10 winners and have another 11 on my TBR shelf. Those I have read are in red; those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue.
2018 Improvement by Joan Silber
2017 Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
2016 Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
2015 Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish
2014 We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
2013 Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
2012 The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
2011 The Collected Stories by Deborah Eisenberg
2010 War Dances by Sherman Alexie
2009 Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
2008 The Great Man by Kate Christensen
2007 Everyman by Philip Roth
2006 The March by E L Doctorow
2005 War Trash by Ha Jin
2004 The Early Stories: 1953-1975 by John Updike
2003 The Caprices by Sabina Murray
2002 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (reviewed here)
2001 The Human Stain by Philip Roth (reviewed here)
2000 Waiting by Ha Jin
1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
1998 The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor
1997 Women in Their Beds: New and Selected Stories by Gina Berriault
1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
1995 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
1994 Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth
1993 Postcards by E. Annie Proulx
1992 Mao II by Don Delillo
1991 Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
1990 Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow
1989 Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter
1988 World's End by T. Coraghessan Boyle
1987 Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley
1986 The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor
1985 The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
1984 Sent for You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman
1983 Seaview by Toby Olson
1982 The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
1981 How German Is It = Wie Deutsch Ist Es by Walter Abish
NOTE
Updated DXecember 31, 2018.
OTHERS WORKING ON THIS LIST
If you are reading these books and would like related posts to be listed here, please leave comments with links and I will add them.
