Everett's novel, a dramatic reworking of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” already has won the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It was on the short list for the Booker Prize and is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award,
‘Pemi Aguda’s “Ghostroots,” Susan Muaddi Darraj's “Behind You Is the Sea" and Ruben Reyes Jr.'s “There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven” also are PEN/Faulkner nominees, along with Danzy Senna's “Colored Television,” Ben Shattuck's “The History of Sound” and John Vercher's “Devil Is Fine.”
Previous winners of the award, established in 1981, include Philip Roth, John Edgar Wideman and Yiyun Li.