# Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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Joseph Pulitzer
Columbia University
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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 (no Novel prize was awarded in 1917, the first one having been granted in 1918).
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.

## Definition

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. 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. 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.
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." 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

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. 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

| Year | Winner | Winner | Work | 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 1921 | | Edith Wharton (1862–1937) | The Age of Innocence | 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 | 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 | 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| 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

Entries from this point on include the finalists listed for each year.
| Year | Winner | Winner | Work | 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, BirdyPhilip 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, GodricWilliam 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 SunriseMarilynne Robinson, Housekeeping |
| 1983 | | Alice Walker (b. 1944) | The Color Purple | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1982) | Epistolary novel | Georgia | Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick RestaurantChaim Grade, Rabbis and Wives |
| 1984 | | William Kennedy (b. 1928) | Ironweed | Viking Press (1983) | Novel | New York | Raymond Carver, CathedralThomas Berger, The Feud |
| 1985 | | Alison Lurie (1926–2020) | Foreign Affairs | Random House (1984) | Novel | Illinois | Diana O'Hehir, I Wish This War Were OverDouglas Unger, Leaving the Land |
| 1986 | | Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) | Lonesome Dove | Simon & Schuster (1985) | Western novel | Texas | Russell Banks, Continental DriftAnne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist |
| 1987 | | Peter Taylor (1917–1994) | A Summons to Memphis | Alfred A. Knopf (1986) | Novel | Tennessee | Donald Barthelme, ParadiseNorman Rush, Whites |
| 1988 | | Toni Morrison (1931–2019) | Beloved | Alfred A. Knopf (1987) | Novel | Ohio | Diane Johnson, Persian NightsAlice 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 SpiritTim O'Brien, The Things They Carried |
| 1992 | | Jane Smiley (b. 1949) | A Thousand Acres | Alfred A. Knopf (1991) | Domestic realism | California | David Gates, JerniganRobert M. Pirsig, Lila: An Inquiry into MoralsDon 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 WakesJoyce 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 ConfessionReynolds Price, The Collected Stories |
| 1995 | | Carol Shields (1935–2003) | The Stone Diaries | Random House (1993) | Novel | Illinois | Grace Paley, The Collected StoriesJoyce Carol Oates, What I Lived For |
| 1996 | | Richard Ford (b. 1944) | Independence Day | Alfred A. Knopf (1995) | Novel | Mississippi | Oscar Hijuelos, Mr. Ives' ChristmasPhilip 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 ManikinUrsula 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: StoriesDon DeLillo, Underworld |
| 1999 | | Michael Cunningham (b. 1952) | The Hours | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998) | Historical fiction | Ohio | Russell Banks, CloudsplitterBarbara 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 StoriesHa Jin, Waiting |
| 2001 | | Michael Chabon (b. 1963) | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Random House (2000) | Historical fiction | Washington, D.C. | Joyce Carol Oates, BlondeJoy Williams, The Quick and the Dead |
| 2002 | | Richard Russo (b. 1949) | Empire Falls | Alfred A. Knopf (2001) | Novel | New York | Colson Whitehead, John Henry DaysJonathan Franzen, The Corrections |
| 2003 | | Jeffrey Eugenides (b. 1960) | Middlesex | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2002) | Family saga | Michigan | Andrea Barrett, Servants of the Map: StoriesAdam 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 WomanMarianne Wiggins, Evidence of Things Unseen |
| 2005 | | Marilynne Robinson (b. 1943) | Gilead | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004) | Epistolary Novel | Idaho | Ward Just, An Unfinished SeasonHa Jin, War Trash |
| 2006 | | Geraldine Brooks (b. 1955) | March | Viking Press (2005) | Historical fiction | New York (born in Sydney, Australia) | Lee Martin, The Bright ForeverE. L. Doctorow, The March |
| 2007 | | Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023) | The Road | Alfred A. Knopf (2006) | Post-apocalyptic fiction | Rhode Island | Alice McDermott, After ThisRichard 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 KitchenDenis Johnson, Tree of Smoke |
| 2009 | | Elizabeth Strout (b. 1956) | Olive Kitteridge | Random House (2008) | Interrelated short stories | Maine | Christine Schutt, All SoulsLouise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves |
| 2010 | | Paul Harding (b. 1967) | Tinkers | Bellevue Literary Press (2009) | Debut novel | Massachusetts | Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other WondersLydia Millet, Love in Infant Monkeys |
| 2011 | | Jennifer Egan (b. 1962) | A Visit from the Goon Squad | Alfred A. Knopf (2010) | Interrelated short stories | Illinois | Jonathan Dee, The PrivilegesChang-rae Lee, The Surrendered |
| 2012 | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Not awarded | Karen Russell, Swamplandia!David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (posthumously)Denis Johnson, Train Dreams |
| 2013 | | Adam Johnson (b. 1967) | The Orphan Master's Son | Random House (2012) | Novel | South Dakota | Eowyn Ivey, The Snow ChildNathan Englander, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank |
| 2014 | | Donna Tartt (b. 1963) | The Goldfinch | Little, Brown and Company (2013) | Novel | Mississippi | Philipp Meyer, The SonBob Shacochis, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul |
| 2015 | | Anthony Doerr (b. 1973) | All the Light We Cannot See | Charles Scribner's Sons (2014) | War novel | Ohio | Richard Ford, Let Me Be Frank With YouJoyce Carol Oates, Lovely, Dark, DeepLaila Lalami, The Moor's Account |
| 2016 | | Viet Thanh Nguyen (b. 1971) | The Sympathizer | Grove Press (2015) | Debut novel | California (born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Vietnam) | Kelly Link, Get in Trouble: StoriesMargaret Verble, Maud's Line |
| 2017 | | Colson Whitehead (b. 1969) | The Underground Railroad | Doubleday (2016) | Alternate historical novel | New York | Adam Haslett, Imagine Me GoneC. E. Morgan, The Sport of Kings |
| 2018 | | Andrew Sean Greer (b. 1970) | Less | Little, Brown and Company (2017) | Satirical novel | Washington, D.C. | Hernan Diaz, In the DistanceElif Batuman, The Idiot |
| 2019 | | Richard Powers (b. 1957) | The Overstory | W. W. Norton & Company (2018) | Novel | Illinois | Rebecca Makkai, The Great BelieversTommy Orange, There There |
| 2020 | | Colson Whitehead (b. 1969) | The Nickel Boys | Doubleday (2019) | Novel | New York | Ann Patchett, The Dutch HouseBen Lerner, The Topeka School |
| 2021 | | Louise Erdrich (b. 1954) | The Night Watchman | Harpercollins (2020) | Novel | Minnesota | Daniel Mason, A Registry of My Passage Upon the EarthPercival 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 | New York Review Books (2021) | Novel | New Jersey | Francisco Goldman, Monkey BoyGayl Jones, Palmares |
| 2023 | | Hernan Diaz (b. 1973) | Trust | Riverhead Books (2022) | Novel | New York (born in Argentina) | Vauhini Vara, The Immortal King Rao |
| 2023 | | Barbara Kingsolver (b. 1955) | Demon Copperhead | Harper (2022) | Novel | Kentucky | Vauhini Vara, The Immortal King Rao |
| 2024 | | Jayne Anne Phillips (b. 1952) | Night Watch | Knopf (2023) | Novel | West Virginia | Yiyun Li, Wednesday's ChildEd Park, Same Bed Different Dreams |

## Repeat winners

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

## Authors with multiple nominations

5 Nominations
* Joyce Carol Oates
4 Nominations
* 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
* Barbara Kingsolver
* Richard Powers
* Annie Proulx
* Marilynne Robinson
* Robert Stone
* John Updike