The Pen/Faulkner Award was named for William Faulkner, who won the Nobel Prize, and used the monetary portion of the award to create an award for young fiction writers. The award is affiliated with PEN, an international organization of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists. The award was founded in 1980, by writers who wished to honor their peers. Every year, the award judges, who are themselves writers, select five books. In May, at the award ceremony at the Folger Library, all five authors read from their works, the winner receives an award of fifteen thousand dollars, and the four others each receive five thousand dollars.

Bel Canto / Ann Patchett (Winner)
The Corrections / Jonathan Franzen
Sister Noon / Karen Joy Fowler
The Hunters / Claire Messud
The Death of Vishnu / Manil Suri

The Human Stain / Philip Roth (Winner)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay / Michael Chabon
Harry Gold / Millicent Dillon
The Name of the World / Denis Johnson
Off Keck Road / Mona Simpson

Waiting / Ha Jin (Winner)
The Night Inspector / Frederick Busch
Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies / Ken Kalfus
Amy and Isabelle / Elizabeth Strout
Siam: Or the Woman Who Shot a Man / Lily Tuck

The Hours / Michael Cunningham (Winner)
The Poisonwood Bible / Barbara Kingsolver
Cloudsplitter / Russell Banks
Starting Out in the Evening / Brian Morton
The Doctor Stories / Richard Selzer

The Bear Comes Home / Rafi Zabor (Winner)
The Mercy Seat / Rilla Askew
The Hundred Brothers / Donald Antrim
Because They Wanted To / Mary Gaitskill
The Ordinary Seaman / Francisco Goldman

Women in Their Beds / Gina Berriault

Independence Day / Richard Ford

Snow Falling on Cedars / David Guterson