Most of the five nominees for the 2012 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, announced yesterday, are veteran writers with strings of awards attached to their names. The relative newcomer is Julie Otsuka, nominated for The Buddha in the Attic (RH/Knopf; Thorndike large print; Books on Tape; OverDrive ebook and audio), her second book after When the Emperor Was Divine (Knopf, 2002). It was also a National Book Award finalist.

The other nominees are:

Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda, (S&S/Scribner; Recorded Books; S&S Audio) — the author’s first volume of short stories. He won the Pen/Faulkner in 1992 for Mao II.

Russell Banks for Lost Memory of Skin (HarperCollins/Ecco; Recorded Books; HarperLuxe; OverDrive ebook) — the author’s earlier novels, Affliction and Cloudsplitter were both Pen/Faulkner Nominees.

Steven Millhauser, We Others: New and Selected Stories (RH/Knopf; OverDrive ebook) — Millhauser won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Martin Dressler.

Anita Desai, The Artist of Disappearance (HMH; Dreamscape Audio; OverDrive ebook and audio) —  the author has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times.

The winner, to be announced March 26, receives $15,000.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 at 10:28 am and is filed under Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.