PEN/Faulkner Award 2007: Complete list of winners

Philip Roth’s Everyman took the top prize in the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, cementing what was already a remarkable year for one of American literature’s most celebrated authors. The PEN/Faulkner Award, one of the largest grants awarded to American writers by an independent nonprofit organization, has long served as a prestigious recognition of literary excellence—distinct from its more famous cousin, the Pulitzer Prize, in its focus on artistic merit rather than popularity. Roth’s slim, haunting meditation on mortality and the human body represented a departure from some of his earlier maximalist works, yet it showcased the unflinching narrative precision that has defined his career.

The recognition felt particularly significant given that Everyman was a late-career work that distilled decades of Roth’s preoccupations into a spare, almost classical form. The novel had already generated considerable critical attention for its unflinching examination of aging, regret, and the body’s inevitable betrayals—themes that resonate deeply with the PEN/Faulkner Award’s commitment to honoring serious, uncompromising American fiction. This award reinforced Roth’s standing not just as a prolific master of the form, but as a writer capable of profound artistic reinvention even in his seventies.

Below you’ll find the complete list of 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award winners and finalists.

Fiction

• Everyman by Philip Roth