The PEN/Malamud Award “recognizes a body of work that demonstrates excellence in the art of short fiction.” It is a relatively young award that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, possibly because of its focus on the short story, a form which also doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Then again, perhaps it is because many of the authors, as this award recognizes a body of work, are already well established. Bernand Malamud has his name tied to the award because of his proven excellence in the form, and the award was initially funded by Malamud family.
- 2015: Deborah Eisenberg
- 2013: George Saunders
- 2012: James Salter
- 2011: Edith Pearlman
- 2010: Nam Le & Edward P. Jones
- 2009: Alistair MacLeod & Amy Hempel
- 2008: Cynthia Ozick & Peter Ho Davies
- 2007: Elizabeth Spencer
- 2006: Adam Haslett & Tobias Wolff
- 2005: Lorrie Moore
- 2004: Richard Bausch & Nell Freudenberger
- 2003: Barry Hannah & Maile Meloy
- 2002:- Junot Diaz & Ursula K. Le Guin
- 2001: Sherman Alexie & Richard Ford
- 2000: Ann Beattie & Nathan Englander
- 1999: T. Coraghessan Boyle
- 1998: John Barth
- 1997: Alice Munro
- 1996: Joyce Carol Oates
- 1995: Stuart Dybek & William Maxwell
- 1994: Grace Paley
- 1993: Peter Taylor
- 1992: Eudora Welty
- 1991: Frederick Busch & Andre Dubus
- 1990: George Garrett
- 1989: Saul Bellow
- 1988: John Updike