PEN/Faulkner Award

Philip Roth has nabbed the PEN/Faulkner award for "Everyman". It's the third time he's won (previously for "Operation Shylock" and "The Human Stain"). But I found the shortlist intriguing - All four of the runners-up were short story collections:

• Charles D'Ambrosio ''The Dead Fish Museum''
• Deborah Eisenberg ''Twilight of the Superheroes''
• Amy Hempel ''The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel''
• Edward P. Jones ''All Aunt Hagar's Children"

Seems rather lopsided to have one novel stuck with four short story collections. But the three judges - David Gates, Debra Magpie Earling and John Dufresne - all of whom write both short stories and novels, argue in The Washington Post article that while the tilt toward shorts wasn't a conscious decision, they are glad because of the sales implications - perhaps this will push publishers toward paying the short form more respect.

Comments from the judges:

David Gates: "What hit me so hard about 'Everyman' was its intensity, and its systematic, pitiless stripping away of false comforts -- and then real comforts. The only comfort for the reader is that Roth has faced such terrifying truths absolutely straight, and made even this devastating material into a thing of beauty."

Debra Magpie Earling: "It's such a slim volume and the book haunts me, its simplicity and brutishness, the unflinching look at life. Roth never looks away, never trivializes, never shrugs. He manages to wrestle with grief, the immensity of losing self."

Comments

[LK]

Wow, that's interesting about the short story collections. As a short story writer, I'm happy about that. I MUST read d'Ambrosio and Eisenberg's latest. I have an old out of print book by d'Ambrosio -- it is nice to see he is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

[Brent]

Short stories are the future for the short attention span people. At least I hope so. I think short story as a genre is really still coming into its own.