Author Christensen Wins 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award

By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 12, 2008;

Kate Christensen has won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for her novel, "The Great Man," whose ironic title refers to a recently deceased painter but whose focus is on the women who had lived in his shadow.
PEN/Faulkner judge Molly Giles called the novel "intelligent, consistently entertaining and original." Fellow judge Victor LaValle called the women at its center "defiant, infuriating and alive."
"I'm really shocked," said Christensen, 45, who was doing the laundry in her Brooklyn home when the phone call came. All writers know about the PEN/Faulkner Award, she said, but to her "it's always seemed unattainable."

Finalists for the award included Annie Dillard for "The Maytrees," David Leavitt for "The Indian Clerk," T.M. McNally for "The Gateway: Stories" and Ron Rash for "Chemistry and Other Stories."

Christensen will receive $15,000, each finalist will receive $5,000 and all five authors will be honored at a May 10 ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library.