The finalists for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award have been introduced. The award honors the perfect fiction by everlasting American residents inside a calendar yr. For this forty fifth iteration of the award, three writers—Bruce Holsinger, Deesha Philyaw, and Luis Alberto Urrea—have been chosen to function judges. They whittled down the potential award winners to a ten-book-long record, and now they’ve shortened the record additional into 5 books. Lastly, in a ceremony on Might 15, 2025, they’ll announce a winner who they deem to be “the first among equals.”
Beneath are the 5 finalists.
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj
James by Percival Everett
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
Coloured Tv by Danzy Senna
The forty fifth Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration will happen on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., on Might 15 this yr. It would function displays by PEN/Faulkner judges, unique readings by the winner and finalists, and a celebration of this yr’s PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion, Dr. Carla Hayden.
The winner of the prize will obtain $15,000, whereas every of the finalists will get $5,000.
To be taught extra concerning the finalists and the award, go to PEN/Faulkner.