PEN/Faulkner Award 2011: Complete list of winners

The 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honored one of contemporary literature’s most elegant and insightful voices: Deborah Eisenberg, recognized for The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg. This prestigious recognition underscores the enduring power of the short story form, a genre that the PEN/Faulkner Award has championed since its inception. Eisenberg’s collection represents years of meticulous craftsmanship, with stories that shimmer with psychological depth and an almost anthropological eye for human behavior—the kind of work that reminds readers why the short story remains vital in American letters.

Eisenberg’s win reflects a broader appreciation in the literary establishment for writers who treat the short story with the same rigor and ambition typically reserved for the novel. Her characters navigate the complexities of modern life—love, alienation, family dynamics, and cultural displacement—with a precision that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. The 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award, named after William Faulkner and presented by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, continues its mission to recognize exceptional fiction that might otherwise be overshadowed in the awards landscape.

Below, you’ll find the complete details of this year’s honorees and what made their work stand out to the judges.

Fiction

• The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg