Judges Rilla Askew, Kyoko Mori, and Al Young have selected five books published in 2009 as finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction. The nominees are Sherman Alexie for War Dances (Grove Press); Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna (Harper); Lorraine M. López for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories (BkMk Press); Lorrie Moore for A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf); and Colson Whitehead for Sag Harbor (Doubleday).
This year, judges considered close to 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the US during the 2009 calendar year. Submissions came from over 90 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. There is no fee for a publisher to submit a book.
The winner, who will receive $15,000, will be announced on March 23; the four finalists will receive $5,000 each.