The PEN/Faulkner Foundation has revealed the longlist for its 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, given annually to “a debut novel of exceptional merit by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction.”
Katie Yee made the longlist for Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar, which also won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. Ethan Rutherford was nominated for North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther, a National Book Award finalist, as was Rickey Fayne for The Devil Three Times, which was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
Virginia Evans was longlisted for her breakout bestseller The Correspondent, alongside Amie Barrodale for Trip, Colwill Brown for We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, Susanna Kwan for Awake in the Floating City, and Maggie Su for Blob.
Lauren Francis-Sharma, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s awards committee chair, said in a statement, “This year’s extraordinary list captures all the excitement of discovering new talents, from frenzied voyages and forlorn figures to chasmic yearnings, age-old regrets, and youthful transgressions, each story a reflection of the absolute thrill of American fiction.”
The PEN/Hemingway Award was established in 1976. Previous winners include Marilynne Robinson for Housekeeping, Chang-rae Lee for Native Speaker, Yaa Gyasi for Homegoing, and Javier Fuentes for Countries of Origin.
The three finalists for this year’s prize will be announced next month, with the winner revealed in March.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
