Named for its founder, William Faulkner, the PEN/Faulkner Award is given yearly to the best work of fiction by an American author. Faulkner set up the award after he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950. The sponsoring award organization is PEN -- Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists -- an international organization of writers. Started in 1980, the PEN/Faulkner Award winners and nominess are selected by a judging panel of three noted writers of fiction. The winner receives a $15,000 prize, and runners-up receive $5,000. Shown below are winners since 1981.

Source: PEN/Faulkner Board