Since 2017, PEN America has administered the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel which has honored a debut novel of exceptional merit by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The Award aims to preserve the novel as an art form and to support the longevity of the writer’s literary career.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is the new administrator of the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, in partnership with the Hemingway Foundation and Society. For the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award submission guidelines and eligibility criteria, please visit penfaulkner.org.
All past winners, finalists, and longlisters for this award are eligible to receive PEN America’s official emblems. If you are a publisher and interested in obtaining PEN America’s award emblem, please write to [email protected].
2025 Winner
To a debut novel of exceptional literary merit.
Winner: Early Sobrieties, Michael Deagler (Astra House, 2024)
From the judges’ citation: “Michael Deagler’s Early Sobrieties is an exquisitely honest, humorous, and poignant depiction of life on the far side of addiction. Its hero, Dennis Monk, seven months sober, finds temporary shelter on the guest beds and couches of Philadelphia while seeking a foothold in the young adulthood that’s been passing him by. This uniquely sustained portrait of recovery, all of its tedium shot through with moments of transcendence, lays bare the beautiful terror of each blank day, and the raw miracle of being alive.”
History
Previous Winners
2024 Countries of Origin, Javier Fuentes (Pantheon Books)
2023 Calling For a Blanket Dance, Oscar Hokeah (Algonquin Books)
2022 Detransition, Baby: A Novel, Torrey Peters (MCD)
2021 Kawai Strong Washburn for Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel (MCD)
2020 Ruchika Tomar for A Prayer for Travelers (Riverhead Books)
2019 Tommy Orange for There There
2018 Weike Wang for Chemistry
2017 Yaa Gyasi for Homegoing
2016 Ottessa Moshfegh for Eileen
2015 Arna Bontemps Hemenway for Elegy on Kinderklavier
2014 NoViolet Bulawayo for We Need New Names
2013 Kevin Powers for The Yellow Birds
2012 Teju Cole for Open City
2011 Brando Skyhorse for The Madonnas of Echo Park
2010 Brigid Pasulka for A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True
2009 Michael Dahlie for A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living
2008 Joshua Ferris for Then We Came to the End
2007 Ben Fountain for Brief Encounters with Che Guevara
2006 Yiyun Li for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
2005 Chris Abani for Graceland
2004 Jennifer Haigh for Mrs. Kimble
2003 George Brownstein for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W
2002 Justin Cronin for Mary and O’Neil
2001 Akhil Sharma for An Obedient Father
2000 Jhumpa Lahiri for Interpreter of Maladies
1999 Rosina Lipini for Homestead
1998 Charlotte Bacon for A Private State
1997 Ha Jin for Ocean of Words
1996 Chang-rae Lee for Native Speaker
1995 Susan Power for The Grass Dancer
1994 Dagobert Gilb for The Magic of Blood
1993 Edward P. Jones for Lost in the City
1992 Louis Begley for Wartime Lies
1991 Bernard Cooper for Maps to Anywhere
1990 Mark Richard for The Ice at the Bottom of the World
1989 Jane Hamilton for The Book of Ruth
1988 Lawrence Thornton for Imagining Argentina
1987 Mary Ward Brown for Tongues of Flame
1986 Alan V. Hewat for Lady’s Time
1985 Josephine Humphreys for Dreams of Sleep
1984 Joan Chase for During the Reign of the Queen of Persia
1983 Bobbie Ann Mason for Shiloh and Other Stories
1982 Marilynne Robinson for Housekeeping
1981 Joan Silber for Household Words
1980 Alan Saperstein for Mom Kills Kids and Self
1979 Reuben Bercovitch for Hasen
1978 Darcy O’Brien for A Way of Life, Like Any Other
1977 Renata Adler for Speedboat
1976 Loyd Little for Parthian Shot