The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is given each year by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to American authors, Green Card holders, or permanent residents who write the best fiction of the year. The winner receives $15,000, and each of four runners-up receives $5,000. At the ceremony in Washington, D.C., judges read statements about each finalist's work. The organization says this is "the largest peer-juried award in the country." The award was first given in 1981.

Mary Lee Settle helped start the PEN/Faulkner Award after a disagreement at the 1979 National Book Award. At that time, PEN America decided to stop participating because they believed the award had become too focused on money.