Joan Silber’s ‘Improvement’ wins PEN-Faulkner award

NEW YORK (AP) — Author Joan Silber has received another literary prize.

Silber’s novel “Improvement” is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction, a $15,000 honor. Last month, Silber was awarded the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction.

On Wednesday, PEN/Faulkner judges praised Silber’s gift for combining multiple narratives and revealing the lives of “unassuming, everyday people.” Her other books include “Household Words” and “Fools,” a PEN/Faulkner finalist in 2014.

Runners-up for this year’s award are Hernan Diaz, Samantha Hunt, Achy Obejas and Jesmyn Ward, whose “Sing, Unburied, Sing” won the National Book Award. Each will receive $5,000.