Wednesday, February 24, 2010

PEN / Faulkner Award Nominees

The nominees have been announced for the PEN / Faulkner Award.

War Dances, by Sherman Alexie
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, by Lorraine M. Lopez
A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead

I'll cop to not paying much attention to non-genre awards that aren't the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. But, when I saw the nominee list and noticed Kingsolver was on it, I realized I should really pay a bit more attention to PEN / Faulkner. In the past I've noticed that books that I was reading and enjoying the hell out of also had the PEN / Faulkner Award stamped on the cover of the book.
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize which honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year. Three judges, chosen annually by the directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, select five books from among the more than 300 works submitted, making this the largest peer-juried award in the country. The winning writer and four finalists are honored at a ceremony held in Washington at the Folger Shakespeare Library in May.

Some previous winners
:
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett (2002)
The Human Stain, by Philip Roth (2001)
Mao II, by Don DeLillo (1992)

Factor the nominees in, and you've got one hell of a reading list. I was convinced that Louise Erdrich had previously been nominated, but I can't see that she was. Weird.

2 comments:

William Preston said...

I'd say the PEN/Faulkner Award is more reliable than the Pulitzer. Look back at previous Pulitzer winners (in fiction) and ask yourself, "Really?"

Bill Preston
http://wmpreston.blogspot.com

Joe said...

Oh, I tend not to be too excited about the Pulitzers. I pay attention to them and there have been some outstanding choices (Interpreter of Maladies? A Thousand Acres? Love them both) - but as a whole - shrug. It's a reading list.