# Thurber Prize for American Humor

The Thurber Prize for American Humor, named after American humorist James Thurber, recognizes outstanding contributions in humor writing. The prize is given out by the Thurber House. It was first awarded irregularly, but since 2004 has been bestowed annually. In 2015, the finalists were for the first time, all women. Winners of the Thurber Prize have included authors from an array of diverse backgrounds, from The Daily Show hosts Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah to The New Yorker staff writers Calvin Trillin and Ian Frazier, as well as university professors Julie Schumacher and Harrison Scott Key.

## Honorees

Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1997 | Ian Frazier | Coyote v. Acme | Winner |
| 1997 | Al Franken | Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations | Finalist |
| 1997 | David Sedaris | Naked | Finalist |
| 1999 | The Onion editorial staff | Our Dumb Century | Winner |
| 2001 | David Sedaris | Me Talk Pretty One Day | Winner |
| 2001 | Henry Alford | Big Kiss | Special Honor |
| 2001 | Andy Borowitz | The Trillionaire Next Door | Finalist |
| 2001 | Bill Bryson | In a Sunburned Country | Finalist |
| 2001 | Brett Leveridge | Men My Mother Dated | Finalist |
| 2001 | Jim Mullen | It Takes a Village Idiot | Finalist |
| 2004 | Christopher Buckley | No Way to Treat a First Lady | Winner |
| 2004 | Robert Kaplow | Me and Orson Welles | Finalist |
| 2004 | Dan Zevin | The Day I Turned Uncool | Finalist |
| 2005 | Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, David Javerbaum and The Daily Show writing staff | America (The Book) | Winner |
| 2005 | Andy Borowitz | The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers | Finalist |
| 2005 | Firoozeh Dumas | Funny in Farsi | Finalist |
| 2006 | Alan Zweibel | The Other Shulman | Winner |
| 2006 | Kinky Friedman | Texas Hold 'Em: How I Was Born in a Manger, Died in the Saddle, and Came Back as a Horny Toad | Finalist |
| 2006 | Bill Scheft | Time Won't Let Me | Finalist |
| 2007 | Joe Keenan | My Lucky Star | Winner |
| 2007 | Merrill Markoe | Walking In Circles Before Lying Down | Finalist |
| 2007 | Bob Newhart | I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! And Other Things That Strike Me As Funny | Finalist |
| 2008 | Larry Doyle | I Love You Beth Cooper | Winner |
| 2008 | Patricia Marx | Him Her Him Again The End of Him | Finalist |
| 2008 | Simon Rich | Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations | Finalist |
| 2009 | Ian Frazier | Lamentations of the Father | Winner |
| 2009 | Sloane Crosley | I Was Told There'd Be Cake | Finalist |
| 2009 | Don Lee | Wrack and Ruin | Finalist |
| 2009 | Laurie Notaro | The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death | Finalist |
| 2010 | Steve Hely | How I Became a Famous Novelist | Winner |
| 2010 | Jancee Dunn | Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? | Finalist |
| 2010 | Rhoda Janzen | Mennonite in a Little Black Dress | Finalist |
| 2011 | David Rakoff | Half Empty | Winner |
| 2011 | Mike Birbiglia | Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories | Finalist |
| 2011 | Rick Reilly | Sports from Hell | Finalist |
| 2012 | Calvin Trillin | Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff | Winner |
| 2012 | Nate DiMeo | Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America | Finalist |
| 2012 | Patricia Marx | Starting from Happy | Finalist |
| 2013 | Dan Zevin | Dan Gets a Minivan | Winner |
| 2013 | Shalom Auslander | Hope: A Tragedy | Finalist |
| 2013 | Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel | Lunatics | Finalist |
| 2014 | John Kenney | Truth in Advertising | Winner |
| 2014 | Liza Donnelly | Women on Men | Finalist |
| 2014 | Bruce McCall and David Letterman | This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me) | Finalist |
| 2015 | Julie Schumacher | Dear Committee Members | Winner |
| 2015 | Roz Chast | Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? | Finalist |
| 2015 | Annabelle Gurwitch | I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50 | Finalist |
| 2016 | Harrison Scott Key | The World's Largest Man | Winner |
| 2016 | Jason Gay | Little Victories | Finalist |
| 2016 | Mary Norris | Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen | Finalist |
| 2017 | Trevor Noah | Born a Crime | Winner |
| 2017 | Ken Pisani | Amp'd | Finalist |
| 2017 | Aaron Thier | Mr. Eternity | Finalist |
| 2018 | Patricia Lockwood | Priestdaddy | Winner |
| 2018 | Jenny Allen | Would Everybody Please Stop? | Finalist |
| 2018 | John Hodgman | Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches | Finalist |
| 2019 | Simon Rich | Hits and Misses | Winner |
| 2019 | Sloane Crosley | Look Alive Out There | Finalist |
| 2019 | John Kenney | Love Poems for Married People | Finalist |
| 2020 | Damon Young | What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker | Winner |
| 2020 | Dave Barry | Lessons from Lucy | Finalist |
| 2020 | Kira Jane Buxton | Hollow Kingdom | Finalist |
| 2021 | James McBride | Deacon King Kong | Winner |
| 2021 | Mike Birbiglia | The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad | Finalist |
| 2021 | Alexandra Petri | Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why | Finalist |
| 2022 | Steven Rowley | The Guncle | Winner |
| 2022 | Annabelle Gurwitch | You're Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility | Finalist |
| 2022 | Danielle Henderson | The Ugly Cry | Finalist |
| 2023 | S.E. Boyd | The Lemon | Winner |
| 2023 | Elaine Hsieh Chou | Disorientation | Finalist |
| 2023 | Elinor Lipman | Ms. Demeanor | Finalist |