The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, administered by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, was established in 1980 by writers to honor their peers. The award is named for William Faulkner, who used his Nobel Prize funds to create an award for young writers, and PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists), the international writers' organization. The award judges, who are themselves writers of fiction, each read more than 250 novels and short story collections published during the calendar year before selecting five outstanding books. The author of the book designated the winner receives $15,000; each of the other nominees receives $5,000.