PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists Named
The finalists for the prestigious 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction have been announced. The award is known for spotlighting the year's best works of literary fiction from American authors, highlighting both established and emerging voices.
This year's five finalists were selected by a panel of three judges—Samantha Hunt, Tania James, and De'Shawn Charles Winslow—from a longlist of ten books. In total, 387 novels and short story collections published in 2025 by American authors were eligible for consideration. The winner will be named in April and will receive a $15,000 prize. The four other finalists will each receive $5,000. The awards will be presented at the 46th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration on May 6, 2026, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The 2026 finalists are Addie E. Citchens for *Dominion*, Quiara Alegría Hudes for *The White Hot*, Jonas Hassen Khemiri for *The Sisters*, Lily King for *Heart the Lover*, and Mahreen Sohail for *Small Scale Sinners*. The nominated works explore themes of family, nature, human connection, and resilience against powerful structures. The PEN/Faulkner Award was established in 1980 by writer Mary Lee Settle to be an award judged by writers for writers, free of commercial influence. It is named for the international writers' organization PEN and for William Faulkner, who used his Nobel Prize winnings to support young writers. The award is considered the country's largest peer-juried literary prize.
