PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Judges read citations for each of the finalists' works at the presentation ceremony in Washington, D.C. The organization claims it to be "the largest peer-juried award in the country." The award was first given in 1981. Mary Lee Settle was one of the founders of the PEN/Faulkner Award following the controversy at the 1979 National Book Award, when PEN America voted for a boycott on the grounds that the award had become too commercial.

From the Wikipedia article “PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Check the official rules of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.