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Friday, November 6, 2026Nov 6

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Vanderbilt professor up for short story award

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A short story collection by a Vanderbilt University professor is one of five nominees for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

“Homicide Survivors Picnic” by Lorraine Lopez, associate professor of English at Vanderbilt, illustrates the lives of men, women, teenagers and children at turning-point moments. The title story follows a single mother as she drives her pregnant teenage daughter and son to a gathering for survivors of murdered loved ones.

The PEN/Faulkner Award is the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in America.

The winner will be announced May 8 at the 30th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The winner gets $15,000.