Established by National Book Award winner Mary Lee Settle, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation has been recognizing titles that embody literary excellence since 1981.  Previous winners include the likes of Philip Roth, John Updike, Ann Patchett, Sherman Alexie and Joseph O'Neill. For more information about the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the PEN/Faulkner Award, please visit http://www.penfaulkner.org/.

2009 Winner

Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND, has been selected as the winner of this year's PEN / Faulkner Award for fiction, which celebrates the best works of fiction published within the last calendar year. Chosen from over 300 submissions, O'Neill will be honored at a ceremony to be held in May, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. The winner will receive a $15,000 cash prize, and the finalists will be given $5,000 each, making the PEN /Faulkner the largest peer-juried award in the country.

2009 Finalists

MS. HEMPEL CHRONICLES by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

A PERSON OF INTEREST by Susan Choi

NETHERLAND by Joseph O'Neill

LUSH LIFE by Richard Price

SERENA by Ron Rash