The finalists for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award, given annually to an outstanding work of fiction by a permanent U.S. resident, have been revealed.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced the shortlist in a news release, with awards committee chair Louis Bayard saying the finalists “offer us the gift of deeply examined humanity, as well as definitive evidence that American fiction has lost none of its power to enchant and illuminate.”
Jonathan Escoffery made the shortlist for his debut short story collection If I Survive You. The book was previously nominated for a host of literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
Yiyun Li was named a finalist for The Book of Goose, which was also nominated for the Carnegie Medal, while Laura Warrell made the shortlist for Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm.
Rounding out the PEN/Faulkner shortlist were two short story collections: Kathryn Harlan’s Fruiting Bodies and Dionne Irving’s The Islands.
In a statement, judges Christopher Bollen, R.O. Kwon, and Tiphanie Yanique said the shortlisted books “are written with incredible emotional complexity and pressing historical urgency, and each offers a path forward for fiction in this country and beyond.”
The PEN/Faulkner Award was established in 1981. Past winners have included Don DeLillo for Mao II, Annie Proulx for Postcards, and Deesha Philyaw for The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in April.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
