Alexie, Kingsolver among PEN/Faulkner fiction nominees

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On February 23, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced nominees for its 2010 fiction award, one of the US's most prestigious literary prizes. Books by Sherman Alexie, Barbara Kingsolver, Lorraine M. López, Lorrie Moore, and Colson Whitehead are all in the running for the 2010 award.

War Dances is Sherman Alexie's collection of 23 tragicomic short stories, while Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna is a historical novel set in Mexico and the US in the time surrounding World War II and post-war McCarthyism. Lorraine M. López's ten-story collection Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, Lorrie Moore's post-9/11 novel A Gate at the Stairs, and Colson Whitehead's coming-of-age story Sag Harbor round out the nominees.

The winner - whom the PEN/Faulkner Foundation recognizes as the "best among equals" - will be announced on March 23 in Washington DC. Each year's winner recieves $15,000, while each of the four finalists receives $5,000.

Celebrating its 30th year, The PEN/Faulkner Award is one of the US's most prestigious literary prizes alongside the Pulitzer and the National Book Award. Nearly 350 novels and short story collections, written by American authors and published in 2009, were submitted for consideration for the 2010 prize.

http://www.penfaulkner.org/