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Author E.L. Doctorow won the 2006 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction for his historical novel The March, portraying the rampage of General Sherman's rampage through southern states and the lives affected by it. This will be the second time Doctorow has claimed this prize, having received it in 1990 for Billy Bathgate. The award will be officially presented at a Washington gala in May and will feature readings by famous authors.

The award is named, obviously, after William Faulkner, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1950 and then, in turn, gave away his prize money to establish a fund supporting new fiction writers. In the spirit of Faulkner's generosity, the PEN/Faulkner prize serves as a successor to his example. It is associated with the literary group PEN and is unique in that it is one of the few awards decided by a jury of fellow authors. The prize is $15,000 but more importantly is the honor of being selected by a group of respected writers.

Other authors who have received this honor included Ha Jin, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo.

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