Sherman Alexie has won the PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction for his short story collection "War Dances," which is on Grove Press.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Tuesday that Alexie will receive $15,000 for the prize. His collection touches on everything from parenthood to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Each of the four finalists — Barbara Kingsolver for "The Lacuna," Lorraine M. Lopez for "Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories," Lorrie Moore for "A Gate at the Stairs," and Colson Whitehead for "Sag Harbor" — receives $5,000.
Judges considered nearly 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the U.S. during 2009. The prize was established in 1981 and has been won by Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow, John Updike and others.
Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" won the National Book Award for young people's literature in 2007. He is the author of four novels, three other short story collections, books of poetry, documentaries and films.