Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

American award for distinguished novels

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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.

As the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (awarded 1918–1947), it was one of the original Pulitzers; the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year[1] (no Novel prize was awarded in 1917, the first one having been granted in 1918).[2]

The name was changed to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, and eligibility was expanded to also include short stories, novellas, novelettes, and poetry, as well as novels.

Finalists have been announced since 1980, usually a total of three.[2]

## Definition

[edit]

As defined in the original Plan of Award, the prize was given "Annually, for the American novel published during the year which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood," although there was some struggle over whether the word wholesome should be used instead of whole, the word Pulitzer had written in his will.[3] In 1927, the advisory board quietly instituted Pulitzer's word choice, replacing wholesome with whole.

A new consideration arose when the Pulitzer jury was unanimous in recommending Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey for the 1928 prize, although the book deals with Peruvians in Peru, not with Americans in America. The jury chair, Richard Burton of Columbia University, emphasized the moral value of the book in his report to the advisory board: "This piece of fiction is not only an admirable example of literary skill in the art of fiction, but also possesses a philosophic import and a spiritual elevation which greatly increases its literary value." Robert Morss Lovett disagreed, saying it would be "mere subterfuge to say that it has anything to do with the highest standard of American manners and manhood," but went along with the jury in finding "less literary merit" in the other novels under discussion. (Lovett rejected the runner-up Black April by Julia Peterkin, calling it "a rather unedifying picture of life in a primitive negro community" and "an ironical answer to the terms on which the prize is offered." Peterkin won nevertheless in 1929 for a similar novel, Scarlet Sister Mary.) Having settled on Bridge, the Advisory Board redefined the conditions from "whole atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood" to "preferably one which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life," although this did not address the novel's setting.[4] Further refinement into "the best novel published that year by an American author" removed any impediment to Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in 1932, also with a foreign setting in its study of Chinese village life in Anhui, East China.[5]

With 1929 came the first of several much more substantive changes. The board changed the wording to "preferably one which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life" and deleted the insistence that the novel portray "the highest standard of American manners and manhood". In 1936, emphasis was changed again, with the award going to "a distinguished novel published during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life". In 1948, the advisory board widened the scope of the award with the wording "For distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life."[3] This change allowed the prize to go to a collection of short stories for the first time, James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific.

## Winners

[edit]

In 31 years under the "Novel" name, the prize was awarded 27 times; in its first 76 years to 2024 under the "Fiction" name, 70 times. There have been 11 years during which no title received the award. It was shared by two authors for the first time in 2023.[2] Since this category's inception in 1918, 31 women have won the prize. Four authors have won two prizes each in the Fiction category: Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead.

Because the award is for books published in the preceding calendar year, the "Year" column links to the preceding year in literature.

### 1910s to 1970s

[edit]

Year  | Winner  | Work  | Genre(s)  | Author's origin

|
|
|
|

1918 |  | Ernest Poole
(1880–1950)  | His Family | Macmillan (1917)  | Novel | Illinois
1919 |  | Booth Tarkington
(1869–1949)  | The Magnificent Ambersons | Doubleday, Page & Co. (1918)  | Novel  | Indiana
1920 | Not awarded[a]
1921 |  | Edith Wharton
(1862–1937)  | The Age of Innocence[b][7] | D. Appleton & Company (1920)  | Novel  | New York
1922 |  | Booth Tarkington
(1869–1949)  | Alice Adams | Doubleday, Page & Co. (1921)  | Novel  | Indiana
1923 |  | Willa Cather
(1873–1947)  | One of Ours | Alfred A. Knopf (1922)  | Novel  | Virginia
1924 |  | Margaret Wilson
(1882–1973)  | The Able McLaughlins | Harper & Brothers (1923)  | Debut novel | Iowa
1925 |  | Edna Ferber
(1885–1968)  | So Big | Grosset & Dunlap (1924)  | Novel  | Michigan
1926 |  | Sinclair Lewis
(1885–1951)  | Arrowsmith[c] | Harcourt Brace & Co. (1925)  | Novel  | Minnesota
1927 |  | Louis Bromfield
(1896–1956)  | Early Autumn | Amereon Ltd (1926)  | Novel  | Ohio
1928 |  | Thornton Wilder
(1897–1975)  | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Albert & Charles Boni (1927)  | Novel  | Wisconsin
1929 |  | Julia Peterkin
(1880–1961)  | Scarlet Sister Mary | Bobbs-Merrill Company (1928)  | Novel  | South Carolina
1930 |  | Oliver La Farge
(1901–1963)  | Laughing Boy | Houghton Mifflin (1929)  | Novel  | New York
1931 |  | Margaret Ayer Barnes
(1886–1967)  | Years of Grace | Houghton Mifflin (1930)  | Novel  | Illinois
1932 |  | Pearl S. Buck
(1892–1973)  | The Good Earth[d] | John Day Company (1931)  | Historical fiction | West Virginia
1933 |  | T. S. Stribling
(1881–1965)  | The Store | Doubleday, Doran (1932)  | Novel  | Tennessee
1934 |  | Caroline Miller
(1903–1992)  | Lamb in His Bosom | Harper & Brothers (1933)  | Debut novel  | Georgia
1935 |  | Josephine Winslow Johnson
(1910–1990)  | Now in November | Simon & Schuster (1934)  | Debut novel  | Missouri
1936 |  | Harold L. Davis
(1894–1960)  | Honey in the Horn | Harper & Brothers (1935)  | Debut novel  | Oregon
1937 |  | Margaret Mitchell
(1900–1949)  | Gone with the Wind | Macmillan Publishers (1936)  | Novel  | Georgia
1938 |  | John Phillips Marquand
(1893–1960)  | The Late George Apley | Little, Brown and Company (1937)  | Epistolary novel | Delaware
1939 |  | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
(1896–1953)  | The Yearling | Charles Scribner's Sons (1938)  | Young adult novel | Washington, D.C.
1940 |  | John Steinbeck
(1902–1968)  | The Grapes of Wrath | Viking Press (1939)  | Novel  | California
1941 | Not awarded[e]
1942 |  | Ellen Glasgow
(1873–1945)  | In This Our Life | Jonathan Cape (1941)  | Novel  | Virginia
1943 |  | Upton Sinclair
(1878–1968)  | Dragon's Teeth | Viking Press (1942)  | Historical fiction  | Maryland
1944 |  | Martin Flavin
(1883–1967)  | Journey in the Dark | Harper & Brothers (1943)  | Novel  | California
1945 |  | John Hersey
(1914–1993)  | A Bell for Adano | Alfred A. Knopf (1944)  | War novel | New York
(born in Tianjin, China)
1946 | Not awarded[f]
1947 |  | Robert Penn Warren
(1905–1989)  | All the King's Men | Harcourt, Brace & Company (1946)  | Political fiction | Kentucky
1948 |  | James A. Michener
(1907–1997)  | Tales of the South Pacific | Macmillan Publishers (1947)  | Interrelated short stories,
Book debut  | Pennsylvania
1949 |  | James Gould Cozzens
(1903–1978)  | Guard of Honor | Harcourt, Brace & Company (1948)  | War novel  | Illinois
1950 |  | A. B. Guthrie
(1901–1991)  | The Way West | William Sloane Associates (1949)  | Western fiction | Indiana
1951 |  | Conrad Richter
(1890–1968)  | The Town | Alfred A. Knopf (1950)  | Novel  | Pennsylvania
1952 |  | Herman Wouk
(1915–2019)  | The Caine Mutiny | Doubleday (1951)  | Historical fiction  | New York
1953 |  | Ernest Hemingway
(1899–1961)  | The Old Man and the Sea | Charles Scribner's Sons (1952)  | Short novel | Illinois
1954 | Not awarded[g]
1955 |  | William Faulkner
(1897–1962)  | A Fable | Random House (1954)  | Novel  | Mississippi
1956 |  | MacKinlay Kantor
(1904–1977)  | Andersonville | Penguin Books (1955)  | Historical fiction  | Iowa
1957 | Not awarded[h]
1958 |  | James Agee
(1909–1955)  | A Death in the Family
(posthumously)  | McDowell, Obolensky (1957)  | Autobiographical novel | Tennessee
1959 |  | Robert Lewis Taylor
(1912–1998)  | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Doubleday (1958)  | Historical fiction  | Illinois
1960 |  | Allen Drury
(1918–1998)  | Advise and Consent | Doubleday (1959)  | Political fiction,
Debut novel  | Texas
1961 |  | Harper Lee
(1926–2016)  | To Kill a Mockingbird | J. B. Lippincott & Co. (1960)  | Southern Gothic,
Bildungsroman,
Debut novel  | Alabama
1962 |  | Edwin O'Connor
(1918–1968)  | The Edge of Sadness | Little, Brown and Company (1961)  | Novel  | Rhode Island
1963 |  | William Faulkner
(1897–1962)  | The Reivers
(posthumously)  | Random House (1962)  | Novel  | Mississippi
1964 | Not awarded[i]
1965 |  | Shirley Ann Grau
(1929–2020)  | The Keepers of the House | Alfred A. Knopf (1964)  | Novel  | Louisiana
1966 |  | Katherine Anne Porter
(1890–1980)  | Collected Stories | Harcourt Brace (1965)  | Short story collection | Texas
1967 |  | Bernard Malamud
(1914–1986)  | The Fixer | Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1966)  | Novel  | New York
1968 |  | William Styron
(1925–2006)  | The Confessions of Nat Turner | Random House (1967)  | Novel  | Virginia
1969 |  | N. Scott Momaday
(1934–2024)  | House Made of Dawn | Harper & Row (1968)  | Novel  | Oklahoma
1970 |  | Jean Stafford
(1915–1979)  | Collected Stories | Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1969)  | Short story collection  | California
1971 | Not awarded[j]
1972 |  | Wallace Stegner
(1909–1993)  | Angle of Repose | Doubleday (1971)  | Novel  | Iowa
1973 |  | Eudora Welty
(1909–2001)  | The Optimist's Daughter | Random House (1972)  | Short novel  | Mississippi
1974 | Not awarded[k]
1975 |  | Michael Shaara
(1928–1988)  | The Killer Angels | David McKay Publications (1974)  | Historical fiction  | New Jersey
1976 |  | Saul Bellow
(1915–2005)  | Humboldt's Gift | Viking Press (1975)  | Novel  | Illinois
(born in Quebec, Canada)
1977 | Not awarded[l]
1978 |  | James Alan McPherson
(1943–2016)  | Elbow Room | Little, Brown (1977)  | Short story collection  | Georgia
1979 |  | John Cheever
(1912–1982)  | The Stories of John Cheever | Alfred A. Knopf (1978)  | Short story collection  | Massachusetts

### 1980s to 2020s

[edit]

Entries from this point on include the finalists listed for each year.

Year  | Winner  | Work  | Genre(s)  | Author's origin  | Finalists

|
|
|
|
|

1980 |  | Norman Mailer
(1923–2007)  | The Executioner's Song | Little, Brown (1979)  | True crime novel | New Jersey |

* William Wharton, Birdy
* Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer

1981 |  | John Kennedy Toole
(1937–1969)  | A Confederacy of Dunces
(posthumously)  | Louisiana State University Press (1980)  | Picaresque novel | Louisiana |

* Frederick Buechner, Godric
* William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow

1982 |  | John Updike
(1932–2009)  | Rabbit Is Rich | Alfred A. Knopf (1981)  | Novel  | Pennsylvania |

* Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise
* Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

1983 |  | Alice Walker
(b. 1944)  | The Color Purple | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1982)  | Epistolary novel  | Georgia |

* Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
* Chaim Grade, Rabbis and Wives

1984 |  | William Kennedy
(b. 1928)  | Ironweed | Viking Press (1983)  | Novel  | New York |

* Raymond Carver, Cathedral
* Thomas Berger, The Feud

1985 |  | Alison Lurie
(1926–2020)  | Foreign Affairs | Random House (1984)  | Novel  | Illinois |

* Diana O'Hehir, I Wish This War Were Over
* Douglas Unger, Leaving the Land

1986 |  | Larry McMurtry
(1936–2021)  | Lonesome Dove | Simon & Schuster (1985)  | Western novel | Texas |

* Russell Banks, Continental Drift
* Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist

1987 |  | Peter Taylor
(1917–1994)  | A Summons to Memphis | Alfred A. Knopf (1986)  | Novel  | Tennessee |

* Donald Barthelme, Paradise
* Norman Rush, Whites

1988 |  | Toni Morrison
(1931–2019)  | Beloved | Alfred A. Knopf (1987)  | Novel  | Ohio |

* Diane Johnson, Persian Nights
* Alice McDermott, That Night

1989 |  | Anne Tyler
(b. 1941)  | Breathing Lessons | Alfred A. Knopf (1988)  | Novel  | Minnesota |

* Raymond Carver, Where I'm Calling From

1990 |  | Oscar Hijuelos
(1951–2013)  | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1989)  | Novel  | New York |

* E. L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate

1991 |  | John Updike
(1932–2009)  | Rabbit At Rest | Alfred A. Knopf (1990)  | Novel  | Pennsylvania |

* Linda Hogan, Mean Spirit
* Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

1992 |  | Jane Smiley
(b. 1949)  | A Thousand Acres | Alfred A. Knopf (1991)  | Domestic realism | California |

* David Gates, Jernigan
* Robert M. Pirsig, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals
* Don DeLillo, Mao II

1993 |  | Robert Olen Butler
(b. 1945)  | A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | Henry Holt (1992)  | Short story collection  | Illinois |

* Alice McDermott, At Weddings and Wakes
* Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water

1994 |  | E. Annie Proulx
(b. 1935)  | The Shipping News | Charles Scribner's Sons (1993)  | Novel  | Connecticut |

* Philip Roth, Operation Shylock: A Confession
* Reynolds Price, The Collected Stories

1995 |  | Carol Shields
(1935–2003)  | The Stone Diaries | Random House (1993)  | Novel  | Illinois |

* Grace Paley, The Collected Stories
* Joyce Carol Oates, What I Lived For

1996 |  | Richard Ford
(b. 1944)  | Independence Day | Alfred A. Knopf (1995)  | Novel  | Mississippi |

* Oscar Hijuelos, Mr. Ives' Christmas
* Philip Roth, Sabbath's Theater

1997 |  | Steven Millhauser
(b. 1943)  | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer | Crown Publishers (1996)  | Novel  | New York |

* Joanna Scott, The Manikin
* Ursula K. Le Guin, Unlocking the Air and Other Stories

1998 |  | Philip Roth
(1933–2018)  | American Pastoral | Houghton Mifflin (1997)  | Novel  | New Jersey |

* Robert Stone, Bear and His Daughter: Stories
* Don DeLillo, Underworld

1999 |  | Michael Cunningham
(b. 1952)  | The Hours | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998)  | Historical fiction  | Ohio |

* Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter
* Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

2000 |  | Jhumpa Lahiri
(b. 1967)  | Interpreter of Maladies | Houghton Mifflin (1999)  | Short story collection  | Rhode Island
(born in London, United Kingdom)
(lives in Rome, Italy) |

* Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories
* Ha Jin, Waiting

2001 |  | Michael Chabon
(b. 1963)  | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Random House (2000)  | Historical fiction  | Washington, D.C. |

* Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde
* Joy Williams, The Quick and the Dead

2002 |  | Richard Russo
(b. 1949)  | Empire Falls | Alfred A. Knopf (2001)  | Novel  | New York |

* Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days
* Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

2003 |  | Jeffrey Eugenides
(b. 1960)  | Middlesex | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2002)  | Family saga | Michigan |

* Andrea Barrett, Servants of the Map: Stories
* Adam Haslett, You Are Not a Stranger Here

2004 |  | Edward P. Jones
(b. 1950)  | The Known World | Amistad Press (2003)  | Historical fiction  | Washington, D.C. |

* Susan Choi, American Woman
* Marianne Wiggins, Evidence of Things Unseen

2005 |  | Marilynne Robinson
(b. 1943)  | Gilead | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)  | Epistolary Novel  | Idaho |

* Ward Just, An Unfinished Season
* Ha Jin, War Trash

2006 |  | Geraldine Brooks
(b. 1955)  | March | Viking Press (2005)  | Historical fiction  | New York
(born in Sydney, Australia) |

* Lee Martin, The Bright Forever
* E. L. Doctorow, The March

2007 |  | Cormac McCarthy
(1933–2023)  | The Road | Alfred A. Knopf (2006)  | Post-apocalyptic fiction | Rhode Island |

* Alice McDermott, After This
* Richard Powers, The Echo Maker

2008 |  | Junot Díaz
(b. 1968)  | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Riverhead Books (2007)  | Novel  | New Jersey
(born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) |

* Lore Segal, Shakespeare's Kitchen
* Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke

2009 |  | Elizabeth Strout
(b. 1956)  | Olive Kitteridge[m] | Random House (2008)  | Interrelated short stories  | Maine |

* Christine Schutt, All Souls
* Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves

2010 |  | Paul Harding
(b. 1967)  | Tinkers[n] | Bellevue Literary Press (2009)  | Debut novel  | Massachusetts |

* Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
* Lydia Millet, Love in Infant Monkeys

2011 |  | Jennifer Egan
(b. 1962)  | A Visit from the Goon Squad[o] | Alfred A. Knopf (2010)  | Interrelated short stories  | Illinois |

* Jonathan Dee, The Privileges
* Chang-rae Lee, The Surrendered

2012 | Not awarded[14] |

* Karen Russell, Swamplandia!
* David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (posthumously)
* Denis Johnson, Train Dreams

2013 |  | Adam Johnson
(b. 1967)  | The Orphan Master's Son[p] | Random House (2012)  | Novel  | South Dakota |

* Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child
* Nathan Englander, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

2014 |  | Donna Tartt
(b. 1963)  | The Goldfinch[q] | Little, Brown and Company (2013)  | Novel  | Mississippi |

* Philipp Meyer, The Son
* Bob Shacochis, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

2015 |  | Anthony Doerr
(b. 1973)  | All the Light We Cannot See[r] | Charles Scribner's Sons (2014)  | War novel  | Ohio |

* Richard Ford, Let Me Be Frank With You
* Joyce Carol Oates, Lovely, Dark, Deep
* Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account

2016 |  | Viet Thanh Nguyen
(b. 1971)  | The Sympathizer[s] | Grove Press (2015)  | Debut novel  | California
(born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Vietnam) |

* Kelly Link, Get in Trouble: Stories
* Margaret Verble, Maud's Line

2017 |  | Colson Whitehead
(b. 1969)  | The Underground Railroad[t] | Doubleday (2016)  | Alternate historical novel | New York |

* Adam Haslett, Imagine Me Gone
* C. E. Morgan, The Sport of Kings

2018 |  | Andrew Sean Greer
(b. 1970)  | Less[u] | Little, Brown and Company (2017)  | Satirical novel | Washington, D.C. |

* Hernan Diaz, In the Distance
* Elif Batuman, The Idiot

2019 |  | Richard Powers
(b. 1957)  | The Overstory[v] | W. W. Norton & Company (2018)  | Novel  | Illinois |

* Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
* Tommy Orange, There There

2020 |  | Colson Whitehead
(b. 1969)  | The Nickel Boys[w] | Doubleday (2019)  | Novel  | New York |

* Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
* Ben Lerner, The Topeka School

2021 |  | Louise Erdrich
(b. 1954)  | The Night Watchman[x] | Harpercollins (2020)  | Novel  | Minnesota |

* Daniel Mason, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth
* Percival Everett, Telephone

2022 |  | Joshua Cohen
(b. 1980)  | The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family[y] | New York Review Books (2021)  | Novel  | New Jersey |

* Francisco Goldman, Monkey Boy
* Gayl Jones, Palmares

2023[25] |  | Hernan Diaz
(b. 1973)  | Trust[z] | Riverhead Books (2022)  | Novel  | New York
(born in Argentina) |

* Vauhini Vara, The Immortal King Rao

| Barbara Kingsolver
(b. 1955)  | Demon Copperhead[aa] | Harper (2022)  | Novel  | Kentucky
2024 |  | Jayne Anne Phillips
(b. 1952)  | Night Watch[ab] | Knopf (2023)  | Novel  | West Virginia |

* Yiyun Li,  Wednesday's Child
* Ed Park,  Same Bed Different Dreams

2025 |  | Percival Everett
(b. 1956)  | James[ac] | Doubleday (2024)  | Novel  | Georgia |

* Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
* Gayl Jones, The Unicorn Woman
* Stacey Levine, Mice 1961

## Repeat winners

[edit]

Four writers to date have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction multiple times, one nominally in the novel category and two in the general fiction category. Ernest Hemingway was selected by the 1941 and 1953 juries, but the former was overturned with no award given that year.[e]

* Booth Tarkington, 1919, 1922
* William Faulkner, 1955, 1963 (awarded posthumously)
* John Updike, 1982, 1991
* Colson Whitehead, 2017, 2020

## Authors with multiple nominations

[edit]

4 nominations

* Joyce Carol Oates
* Philip Roth

3 nominations

* Alice McDermott
* Anne Tyler
* Colson Whitehead

2 nominations

* Russell Banks
* Raymond Carver
* Don DeLillo
* Hernan Diaz
* E. L. Doctorow
* Louise Erdrich
* Richard Ford
* Adam Haslett
* Oscar Hijuelos
* Ha Jin
* Denis Johnson
* Gayl Jones
* Barbara Kingsolver
* Richard Powers
* Annie Proulx
* Marilynne Robinson
* Robert Stone
* John Updike
* Percival Everett

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ First-time fiction juror Stuart P. Sherman initially recommended Joseph Hergesheimer's Java Head for the award; he rescinded his recommendation when the other jurors informed him that the word "whole" in a key phrase of the original description of the award, "the whole atmosphere of American life", had subsequently been changed to "wholesome".[6]
2. ^ Juror Robert Morss Lovett wrote in the June 22, 1921 issue of The New Republic that in fact the jury had preferred Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis. The Pulitzer board overturned their decision. The man with the deciding vote may have been Nicholas Murray Butler. Lovett thought the public had a right to know that the jury had chosen another book. Lewis was angry but wrote her a congratulatory note. Wharton wrote back, "When I discovered that I was being rewarded — by one of our leading Universities — for uplifting American morals, I confess I did despair. Subsequently, when I found the prize shd really have been yours, but was withdrawn because your book (I quote from memory) had 'offended a number of prominent persons in the Middle West,' disgust was added to despair."
3. ^ Lewis declined the prize.[8]
4. ^ Advisory Board secretary Frank D. Fackenthal asked the jurors only to "list the books in the order of the jury's choice without indicating the ins and outs of the vote." Their report said that they had also "favorably considered" Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather and The Lady Who Came to Stay by R.E. Spencer, noting "it's a rare year when three such excellent novels appear."[5]
5. ^ a b The fiction jury had recommended the 1941 award be shared by The Trees by Conrad Richter and The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. While the Pulitzer Board initially intended to give the award to the jury's third choice, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, persuaded the board to reverse its judgment because he deemed the novel offensive, and no award was given that year.[6][9]
6. ^ Though Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott, The Wayfarers by Dan Wickenden, and Black Boy by Richard Wright were each championed by at least one juror, the jury as a whole could not reach a consensus; one point of contention over Black Boy specifically was that the book is a memoir, not a novel.[6]
7. ^ The two-man fiction jury could not agree on a single book to recommend to the Advisory Board, so no award was given; among the books recommended by juror Eric P. Kelly were Ramey by Jack D. Ferris, The Sands of Karakorum by James Ullman, The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, and The Four Lives of Mundy Tolliver by Ben Lucien Burman, while juror Harris F. Fletcher recommended The Street of the Three Friends by Myron Brinig and The Deep Sleep by Wright Morris[6]
8. ^ The fiction jury had recommended the 1957 award to Elizabeth Spencer's The Voice at the Back Door, but the Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, made no award.
9. ^ "Among the books the judges most seriously considered were the following: (1) Norman Fruchter's Coat Upon a Stick…, (2) May Sarton's novella Joanna and Ulysses…, (3) Sumner Locke Elliott's Careful, He Might Hear You…, [and] (4) John Killens' And Then We Heard the Thunder… If a prize were to be awarded for a 1963 novel we felt these to be the most serious candidates." However, the fiction jury ultimately recommended that no award be given because "no one of them imposes itself upon us as demanding recognition as 'distinguished fiction'…."[6]
10. ^ The three novels the Pulitzer committee put forth for consideration to the Pulitzer board were: Losing Battles by Eudora Welty; Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow; and The Wheel of Love by Joyce Carol Oates. The board rejected all three and opted for no award.[10]
11. ^ The fiction jury had unanimously recommended the 1974 award to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, but the Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, made no award.[9]
12. ^ The fiction jury had recommended the 1977 award to Norman MacLean's A River Runs Through It, but the Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, made no award. That same year, however, Alex Haley's iconic family saga Roots was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize.[9]
13. ^ "A collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating."[11]
14. ^ "A powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."[12]
15. ^ "An inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed."[13]
16. ^ "An exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart."[15]
17. ^ "A beautifully written coming-of-age novel with exquisitely drawn characters that follows a grieving boy's entanglement with a small famous painting that has eluded destruction, a book that stimulates the mind and touches the heart."[16]
18. ^ "An imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology."[17]
19. ^ "A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a "man of two minds" -- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States."[18]
20. ^ "For a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America."[19]
21. ^ "A generous book, musical in its prose and expansive in its structure and range, about growing older and the essential nature of love."[20]
22. ^ "An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them."[21]
23. ^ "A spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption."[22]
24. ^ "A majestic, polyphonic novel about a community’s efforts to halt the proposed displacement and elimination of several Native American tribes in the 1950s, rendered with dexterity and imagination."[23]
25. ^ "A mordant, linguistically deft historical novel about the ambiguities of the Jewish American experience, presenting ideas and disputes as volatile as its tightly-wound plot."[24]
26. ^ "A riveting novel set in a bygone America that explores family, wealth and ambition through linked narratives rendered in different literary styles, a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king."[26]
27. ^ "A masterful recasting of “David Copperfield,” narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse–and his efforts to conquer them.[27]
28. ^ "A beautifully rendered novel set in West Virginia's Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in the aftermath of the Civil War, where a severely wounded Union veteran, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, long abused by a Confederate soldier, struggle to heal."[28]
29. ^ "An accomplished reconsideration of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ that gives agency to Jim to illustrate the absurdity of racial supremacy and provide a new take on the search for family and freedom."[29]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "1917 Pulitzer Prizes". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 2018-04-19.
2. ^ a b c "Pulitzer Prize for the Novel". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 2008-08-19.
3. ^ a b Fischer, Erika J.; Fischer, Heinz D., eds. (2007). Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction: Discussions, Decisions and Documents. Munich, Germany: K. G. Saur Verlag. pp. 3–11\. ISBN 978-3-598-30191-9. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
4. ^ Weissberg, Claudia Stone. "What makes a novel 'American'? Pearl S. Buck challenged the status quo". The Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer.org. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
5. ^ a b Weissberg, Claudia Stone. "What makes a novel 'American'? Pearl S. Buck challenged the status quo". The Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer.org. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
6. ^ a b c d e Hohenberg, John (1974). The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards in Books, Drama, Music, and Journalism, Based on the Private Files Over Six Decades. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 55, 143–44, 198, 204, 258. ISBN 0231038879.
7. ^ Mike Pride. "Edith Wharton's 'The Age of Innocence' Celebrates its 100th Anniversary". The Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer.org. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
8. ^ McDowell, Edwin (1984-05-11). "Publishing: Pulitzer Controversies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
9. ^ a b c McDowell, Edwin (11 May 1984). "PUBLISHING: PULITZER CONTROVERSIES". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-04-19. "[I]n 1941, after both the jury and the board voted to give the fiction prize to Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia and ex-officio chairman of the board, forced the board to change its vote because he found the book offensive."
10. ^ Fischer, Heinz Dietrich; Fischer, Erika J. (1997). Novel/Fiction Awards 1917–1994: From Pearl S. Buck and Margaret Mitchell to Ernest Hemingway and John Updike. The Pulitzer Prize Archive. Vol. 10 (in part D, "Belles Lettres"). München: K.G. Saur. pp. LX–LXI. ISBN 9783110972115. OCLC 811400780.
11. ^ "2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
12. ^ "2010 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
13. ^ "2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
14. ^ "2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 24 December 2017.
15. ^ "2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
16. ^ "2014 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
17. ^ "2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
18. ^ "2016 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
19. ^ "2017 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
20. ^ "2018 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
21. ^ "2019 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
22. ^ "2020 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 14 January 2021.
23. ^ "2021 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 11 June 2021.
24. ^ "2022 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 9 May 2022.
25. ^ Stewart, Sophia (2023-05-08). "'Demon Copperhead,' 'Trust,' 'His Name Is George Floyd' Among 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
26. ^ "2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 8 May 2023.
27. ^ "2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 8 May 2023.
28. ^ "2024 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 6 May 2024.
29. ^ "2025 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 5 May 2024.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Stuckey, W. J. (1981). The Pulitzer Prize Novels: A Critical Backward Look. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806106885.

## External links

[edit]

* Novels portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winners.

* Official website for Pulitzer Prize: for the Novel and for Fiction
* A collection of the public domain winners as eBooks at Standard Ebooks
* The Pulitzer Prize Thumbnails Project
* Michael's Cunningham's "Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year," The New Yorker — Part One (July 9, 2012) and Part Two (July 10, 2012)

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Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Previously the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel from 1917–1947

1918–1925|

* His Family by Ernest Poole (1918)
* The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (1919)
* The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1921)
* Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (1922)
* One of Ours by Willa Cather (1923)
* The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (1924)
* So Big by Edna Ferber (1925)

1926–1950|

* Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1926; declined)
* Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (1927)
* The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1928)
* Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (1929)
* Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge (1930)
* Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (1931)
* The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1932)
* The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling (1933)
* Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Pafford Miller (1934)
* Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (1935)
* Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (1936)
* Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1937)
* The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (1938)
* The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1939)
* The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1940)
* In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (1942)
* Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (1943)
* Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (1944)
* A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (1945)
* All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1947)
* Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (1948)
* Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (1949)
* The Way West by A. B. Guthrie Jr. (1950)

1951–1975|

* The Town by Conrad Richter (1951)
* The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (1952)
* The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1953)
* A Fable by William Faulkner (1955)
* Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (1956)
* A Death in the Family by James Agee (1958)
* The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (1959)
* Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (1960)
* To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1961)
* The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (1962)
* The Reivers by William Faulkner (1963)
* The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau (1965)
* The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (1966)
* The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (1967)
* The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1968)
* House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
* The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford (1970)
* Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1972)
* The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973)
* No award given (1974)
* The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)

1976–2000|

* Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (1976)
* No award given (1977)
* Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (1978)
* The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1979)
* The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (1980)
* A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1981)
* Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982)
* The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983)
* Ironweed by William Kennedy (1984)
* Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (1985)
* Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1986)
* A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987)
* Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988)
* Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989)
* The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (1990)
* Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (1991)
* A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1992)
* A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (1993)
* The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1994)
* The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (1995)
* Independence Day by Richard Ford (1996)
* Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (1997)
* American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1998)
* The Hours by Michael Cunningham (1999)
* Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

2001–present|

* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2001)
* Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2002)
* Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2003)
* The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2004)
* Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2005)
* March by Geraldine Brooks (2006)
* The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007)
* The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2008)
* Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2009)
* Tinkers by Paul Harding (2010)
* A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)
* No award given (2012)
* The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (2013)
* The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2014)
* All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2015)
* The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2016)
* The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2017)
* Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2018)
* The Overstory by Richard Powers (2019)
* The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2020)
* The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2021)
* The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (2022)
* Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver / Trust by Hernan Diaz (2023)
* Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (2024)
* James by Percival Everett (2025)

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