Julie Otsuka’s “The Buddha in the Attic” is a finalist for the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Otsuka, who based her novel on the experiences of Issei picture brides, is competing with Russell Banks’ “Lost Memory of Skin,” Don DeLillo’s “The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories,” Anita Desai’s “The Artist of Disappearance,” and Steven Millhauser’s “We Others: New and Selected Stories.”
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize that honors outstanding works of fiction by American writers each year. Three judges, chosen annually by the directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, select five books from among the more than 300 submitted works, making this the largest peer-juried award in the country. This year’s judges were Marita Golden, Maureen Howard, and Steve Yarbrough.
The winner, who will receive $15,000, will be announced on March 26. The four finalists will receive $5,000 each.
All five authors will be honored on May 5 during the 32nd annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.penfaulkner.org/.