PEN/Faulkner Award 1997: Complete list of winners

The 1997 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction crowned Gina Berriault’s Women in Their Beds as that year’s finest work of American fiction. The PEN/Faulkner Award, one of the nation’s most prestigious literary honors established in 1981 to celebrate the legacy of William Faulkner, recognizes outstanding fiction by American writers and remains a bellwether for serious literary achievement. Berriault’s collection of interconnected stories showcased the kind of psychological depth and narrative innovation that the award has long championed, bringing her accomplished but understated career to wider recognition at a moment when American fiction was grappling with questions of intimacy, desire, and the interior lives of ordinary people.

Berriault’s win represented a victory for short story collections at a time when the novel often dominated literary conversations and award ceremonies. Women in Their Beds demonstrated that sustained excellence across multiple stories could rival the scope and ambition of longer works, a sentiment the PEN/Faulkner Award has historically valued by welcoming both novels and story collections. Her selection underscored the award’s commitment to recognizing nuanced, character-driven literature that prioritizes the depth of human experience over commercial appeal or fashionable subject matter.

Below, you’ll find the complete details of the 1997 PEN/Faulkner Award winners and finalists.

Fiction

• Women in Their Beds by Gina Berriault