PEN/Faulkner Prize Winner Announced

The Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction is the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States.
The winner for 2009 is:

• Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

O'Neill, whose book is narrated by a man who lived in downtown Manhattan at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, will receive $15,000.

The finalists (who each receive $5,000) are:
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum for Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Susan Choi for A Person of Interest
Richard Price for Lush Life
Ron Rash for Serena

The judges considered close to 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the US during the 2008 calendar year. Submissions came from over 70 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. Antonya Nelson, a PEN/Faulkner Judge, said: "Our choices were of a vast and robust variety. The historical novel is alive and well. The short story collection is alive and well. The crossover/transcending-genre novel is alive and well. The political novel is alive and well. Men and women, writing like geniuses, all alive and well."

Previous winners include Philip Roth, John Updike and E.L. Doctorow.