Founded by writers in 1980 to honor their peers, the PEN/Faulkner Award has become the largest juried award for fiction in the United States. Its name recognizes both Nobel laureate William Faulkner, who used his prize-money to create an award for young writers, and its affiliation with the international writers’ organization PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists). Every year the award judges, themselves fiction writers, select five books. The top book earns a $15,000 award, while the rest receive $5,000 each. Funded by donations, in 1987 the PEN/Faulkner Foundation established an endowment for future awards.