2013 PEN/Faulkner Award finalists announced

One of the literary world’s favorite fiction prizes, the PEN/Faulkner award, announced its 2013 finalists Wednesday. In its 33rd year, the contenders come from publishers large and small.

The finalists are Amelia Gray for “Threats,� published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; “Kind One� by Laird Hunt and T. Geronimo Johnson’s “Hold It ‘Til It Hurts,� both published by Coffee House Press; “Watergate� by Thomas Mallon, published by Pantheon; and Benjamin Alire Sáenz for “Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club,� published by Cinco Puntos Press.

Cinco Puntos is a small, 28-year-old independent publishing house in El Paso, Texas; Farrar, Straus and Giroux is one of New York’s best-known literary publishers. Pantheon is also based in New York -- it’s an imprint of Knopf -- while Coffee House Press is a large nonprofit press based in Minneapolis. That Coffee House managed to land two books on the lists of finalists is impressive.

The winner of the PEN/Faulkner award will receive $15,000; the four remaining finalists get $5,000 each. The award is presented in a ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., on May 4.

Three judges -- authors Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario and A.J. Verdelle -- read 350 books published in the year 2012, which had been submitted by 130 publishing houses.

Previous winners of the PEN/Faulkner Award include Richard Ford’s “Independence Day,� Sherman Alexie’s “War Dances,� “World’s End� by T.C. Boyle and “The Buddha in the Attic� by Julie Otsuka.

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