The longlist for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award, given annually to an outstanding work of fiction by an American permanent resident, has been revealed.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced the nominated books in a news release Tuesday.
Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose, which was previously longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, was nominated, along with Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You, which has been longlisted for a host of awards, including the National Book Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Award.
Mat Johnson made the longlist for Invisible Things, as did Conner Habib for Hawk Mountain, Meng Jin for Self-Portrait With Ghost, Rubén Degollado for The Family Izquierdo, and Kathryn Harlan for Fruiting Bodies.
Also nominated for the prize were Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt for Does My Body Offend You?, Dionne Irving for The Islands, and Laura Warrell for Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm.
“This delightfully diverse list showcases the breadth of American literature, and underscores our ongoing mission to champion fiction that matters,” said Louis Bayard, the awards committee chair for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
The PEN/Faulkner prize was first awarded in 1981. Previous winners have included E.L. Doctorow for Billy Bathgate, Ha Jin for Waiting, and Joan Silber for Improvement.
The longlist will be winnowed into a five-book shortlist, which will be revealed in early March. The winner will be announced in April.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
