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/.

2011 Winner

On March 15th, Deborah Eisenberg, author of THE COLLECTED STORIES OF DEBORAH EISENBERG, was selected as the winner of the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award, the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States. Chosen from a selection of 320 novels submitted by more than 125 publishing houses, Eisenberg's collection was cited for its "harp intelligence, literary inventiveness, and her clear understanding of human interconnectedness as it exists in isolation." Deborah Eisenberg, along with four other finalists, will be honored at the Pen/Faulkner Foundation's 31st annual award ceremony, which will be held in May at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

2011 Finalists

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan

THE COLLECTED STORIES OF DEBORAH EISENBERG by Deborah Eisenberg

LORD OF MISRULE by Jaimy Gordon

MODEL HOME by Eric Puchner

ALIENS IN THE PRIME OF THEIR LIVES by Brad Watson