Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels – How Many Have You Read?

I use this page to keep track of Pulitzer prize winning fiction I’ve read. At this point, I haven’t read very many, but I’d like to read more. Let me know how many of these you’ve read and what you recommend or don’t recommend. If you’re a blogger, make your own page and comment here with a link to your blog’s Pulitzer Prize fiction page.

“Pulitzer is a word but accomplishment is an aura.”
— Chila Woychik

I’ve gone one step further in evaluating the novels on this list – I looked to Amazon for information on genre, plot and page count, all factors that will help me decide which books to put on my 2020 reading list. (My 2019 reading list is already set in ascii and is only slightly flexible.)

So many books; so little time! Consequently, I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to read all these books unless I live an extraordinary amount of time, therefore I’m identifying books that especially interest me with the heart icon, for the first time on this blog.

I’m not finished with this page yet – but am publishing it anyhow. I’ve already linked back 20 years. Eventually I’d like to get all the book links onto the page for easy examination of them on the Amazon site. My Amazon links provide a little affiliate income for me which is very much appreciated, just in case you go ahead and buy something after using one of my links.

Here’s a Goodreads group of people reading and discussing these books: Tackling the Pulitzer Prize Winners!

♥ – I want to read this
☆ – I own a copy of the book
★★ – I own a copy and am currently reading the book
✓ – Finished (18)

2021

♥ Winner: The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich – 464 pages – cultural heritage literary fiction; set in 1953 North Dakota, this is about the rights of Native Americans to their homes and land.

Finalist: A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, by Daniel Mason – 240 pages – short stories; tales of struggle for survival, class divisions, need for love and more.

Finalist: Telephone, by Percival Everett – 244 pages – literary fiction; first person stream of consciousness from a geologist/paleobiologist about his work and home life.

2020

✓ Winner: The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead – 224 pages – literary fiction; boys at a reform school – friendships forged and secrets revealed.

♥ Finalist: The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett – 352 pages – coming of age fiction; siblings raised in wealth have to deal with poverty later in life.

Finalist: The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner – 304 pages – coming of age fiction; a high school senior deals with toxic masculinity issues.

2019

✓ Winner: The Overstory, by Richard Powers – 512 pages – literary fiction; trees and the loving preservation of them.

♥ Finalist: The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai – 448 pages – coming of age fiction; centers on Chicago and the AIDS epidemic.

Finalist: There There, by Tommy Orange – 304 pages – Native American literature; twelve Native Americans at a powwow.

2018

Winner: Less, by Andrew Sean Greer – 272 pages – humor; a novelist travels the world

♥ Finalist: In the Distance, by Hernan Diaz – 240 pages – western, family saga; a lonely young man travels east from California

Finalist: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman – 432 pages – humor; a Turkish-American girl at Harvard coming of age

2017

Winner: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead – 336 pages – historical fiction; a woman tries to escape from slavery

Finalist: Imagine Me Gone, by Adam Haslett – 368 pages – literary fiction, family drama; engaged to be married, a man is hospitalized for depression, told by all five members of the family

Finalist: The Sport of Kings, by C.E. Morgan – 560 pages – family saga, sports fiction, literary fiction; two Kentucky families, one white, one black

2016

Winner: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen – 348 pages – espionage thriller – a French-Vietnamese communist double agent immigrates to California after the war, continuing his espionage

Finalist: Get in Trouble: Stories, by Kelly Link – 368 pages – humor; nine short stories

♥ Finalist: Maud’s Line, by Margaret Verble – 304 pages – historical fiction; a Cherokee girl’s coming of age in Eastern Oklahoma, c.1928

2015

✓ Winner: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr – 544 pages – war fiction; World War II: a German boy, a French girl . . . what will happen when they meet?

Finalist: Let Me Be Frank with You, by Richard Ford – 256 pages – contemporary fiction; this is part of the Frank Bascombe series; it would be best to start with the other three books: The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land

Finalist: The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami – 336 pages – ethnic literature; an African slave travels with Spanish conquistadors to America, and is one of four survivors of a shipwreck

Finalist: Lovely, Dark, Deep, by Joyce Carol Oates – 432 pages – short stories; there are thirteen short stories in this collection

2014

✓ Winner: The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt – 771 pages – young adult fiction; a 13 year old boy is in an accident that kills his mother

Finalist: The Son, by Philipp Meyer – 592 pages – western – in Texas a 12 year old boy is kidnapped by the Comanche after his mother and sister are killed

Finalist: The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis – 736 pages – literary fiction – explores fifty years of world history leading up to 9/11

2013

Winner: The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson – 442 pages – political thriller; a young man in North Korea gives his loyalty to the country he lives in and loves

Finalist: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander – 240 pages – short stories; eight short stories with a Jewish theme

♥ Finalist: The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey – 389 pages – magical realism; in Alaska, 1920, a lonely couple finds a young girl living in the woods

2012

Winner: No award given.

Finalist: Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson – 116 pages – literary fiction; a man living in the American west during the twentieth century witnesses the transformation of his country

Finalist: Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell – 400 pages – women’s fiction; a teenage girl lives at an alligator theme park on an island in Florida

Finalist: The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace (posthumous nominee) – 592 pages – literary fiction; a trainee at the IRS processing center experiences the boredom of the job

2011

Winner: A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan – 352 pages – psychological fiction; a novel of interconnected short stories with a contemporary music theme

Finalist: The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee – 288 pages – family saga; a couple with everything given to them is tested by a desire for infinite possibility

Finalist: The Surrendered, by Chang-Rae Lee – 496 pages – ethnic literature; three characters meet at a Korean orphanage; years later there is a reckoning in America

2010

Winner: Tinkers, by Paul Harding – 191 pages – psychological fiction; a dying clock repairman experiences psychological anomalies

Finalist: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin – 256 pages – short stories; linked short stories based in Pakistan

Finalist: Love in Infant Monkeys, by Lydia Millet – 177 pages – short stories; ten short stories

2009

Winner: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout – 320 pages – women’s fiction; a retired schoolteacher grapples with personal and community problems in Maine

Finalist: All Souls, by Christine Schutt – 240 pages – psychological fiction; a girl at a private prep school in NYC falls ill

Finalist: The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich – 352 pages – family saga; in North Dakota, a white and Ojibwe family deals with an unsolved murder

2008

Winner: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz – 339 pages – ethnic fiction; an overweight ghetto dweller wants to find love and write books, but there are problems

Finalist: Shakespeare’s Kitchen, by Lore Segal – 225 pages – short stories; thirteen short stories

Finalist: Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson – 720 pages – war fiction; a CIA psychological operations agent in Vietnam and two brothers from Houston deal with disinformation during the war

2007

✓ Winner: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy – 287 pages – post-apocalyptic; a man and his son wander through a destroyed world of peril and darkness
Finalist: After This, by Alice McDermott – 288 pages – family saga; a family challenged by the various paths the children take as young adults
Finalist: The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers – 451 pages – a young man, an accident, a coma, and a neurological anomaly – what could it mean?

2006

☆ Winner: March, by Geraldine Brooks – 320 pages – epistolary fiction; the absent father of the March girls (Little Women) and the Civil War

Finalist: The Bright Forever, by Lee Martin – 304 pages – family saga; a nine year old Indiana girl disappears while cycling to her library

Finalist: The March, by E. L. Doctorow – 363 pages – war fiction; Sherman’s march to the sea, through Georgia during the Civil War

2005

✓ Winner: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson – 247 pages – epistolary fiction; a dying pastor writes a journal for his very young son

Finalist: An Unfinished Season, by Ward Just – 256 pages – literary fiction; 1950’s, Cold War, family drama

Finalist: War Trash, by Ha Jin – 368 pages – war fiction; Chinese men in a POW camp during the Korean War

2004

Winner: The Known World, by Edward P. Jones – 432 pages – ethnic fiction; a black farmer’s transition to freedom after slavery

Finalist: American Woman, by Susan Choi – 369 pages – psychological fiction; a young female fugitive cares for other fugitives after an act of violence against the government

Finalist: Evidence of Things Unseen, by Marianne Wiggin – 400 pages – war fiction; a Tennessee man between the two world wars

2003

✓ Winner: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides – 544 pages – family saga; a child is born as a hermaphrodite and this is the story of her/his life

Finalist: Servants of the Map, by Andrea Barrett – 320 pages – short stories; six stories from various locales, including Theories of Rain and The Mysteries of Ubiquitin

Finalist: You Are Not a Stranger Here, by Adam Haslett – 256 pages – short stories; also classified as psychological fiction since many characters are depressed

2002

Winner: Empire Falls, by Richard Russo – 483 pages – psychological humor; blue collar workers issues in small town America.

Finalist: The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen – 576 pages – literary fiction; a mother wants her children home for one last Christmas dinner.

Finalist: John Henry Days, by Colson Whitehead – 385 pages – men’s adventure fiction; a black railroad worker dies while outdistancing a machine – an American legend retold.

2001

Winner: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon – 684 pages – humorous literature; two boys making up fantasy heroes.

Finalist: Blonde, by Joyce Carol Oates – 752 pages – biographical historic fiction; a reimagining of the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Finalist: The Quick and the Dead, by Joy Williams – 320 pages – western literary fiction; adventures of three teenagers in the American desert.

2000

Winner: Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri – 198 pages – paranormal & urban fantasy short stories; deals with the universal feelings of foreigners.

Finalist: Close Range: Wyoming Stories, by Annie Proulx – 285 pages – literary short stories; stories of desperation and elation set in Wyoming.

Finalist: Waiting, by Ha Jin – 308 pages – literary fiction; love triangle during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

1999

Winner: The Hours, by Michael Cunningham – 240 pages – literary fiction; Virginia Woolf’s last days and a storyteller and his friend.

Finalist: The HoursCloudsplitter, by Russell Banks – 768 pages – literary fiction; first person pre-civil war era narration by the son of John Brown, abolitionist who used violence to fight slavery.

✓ Finalist: The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver – 576 pages – literary fiction; an evangelical missionary family in Africa.

1998

Winner: American Pastoral, by Philip Roth – 423 pages – literary fiction; a man achieves the American dream only to have his daughter go berserk.

Finalist: Bear and His Daughter: Stories, by Robert Stone – 222 pages – short story collection

Finalist: Underworld, by Don DeLillo – 848 pages – classic literature – an artist and an executive connect in the 50’s and again in the 90’s.

1997

Winner: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, by Steven Millhauser – 293 pages – biographical historical fiction; a man’s rise from a humble job to the top of his field, and his sisters.

Finalist: The Manikin, by Joanna Scott – 228 pages – coming of age fiction; a taxidermist and the daughter of his indentured servant.

Finalist: Unlocking the Air and Other Stories, by Ursula K. Le Guin – 207 pages – short stories; magical realism and surrealism.

1996

Winner: Independence Day, by Richard Ford – 463 pages – book 2 in the Bascombe Trilogy. The first book is The Sportswriter, so I’d read that one first. The third novel in the series is The Lay of the Land.

Finalist: Mr. Ives’ Christmas, by Oscar Hijuelos – 256 pages – not a happy Christmas story; themes are grief, loss of faith, and forgiveness.

Finalist: Sabbath’s Theater, by Philip Roth – 451 pages – contemporary literary fiction; extreme sinner Mickey Sabbath is the MC.

1995

Winner: The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields – 384 pages – literary fiction; from birth to old age, this is the life of Daisy Stone Goodwill.

Finalist: The Collected Stories of Grace Paley, by Grace Paley – 400 pages – short stories

Finalist: What I Lived For, by Joyce Carol Oates – 624 pages – psychological fiction; a corrupt man reels as it all falls down.

1994

Winner: The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx

Finalist: The Collected Stories of Reynolds Price, by Reynolds Price

Finalist: Operation Shylock: A Confession, by Philip Roth

1993

Winner: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, by Robert Olen Butler

Finalist: At Weddings and Wakes, by Alice McDermott

Finalist: Black Water, by Joyce Carol Oates

1992

Winner: A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

Finalist: Jernigan, by David Gates

Finalist: Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, by Robert M. Pirsig

Finalist: Mao II, by Don DeLillo

1991

Winner: Rabbit at Rest, by John Updike

Finalist: Mean Spirit, by Linda Hogan

Finalist: The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien

1990

Winner: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos

Finalist: Billy Bathgate, by E. L. Doctorow

1989

Winner: Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler

Finalist: Where I’m Calling From, by Raymond Carver

1988

✓ Winner: Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Finalist: Persian Nights, by Diane Johnson

Finalist: That Night, by Alice McDermott

1987

Winner: A Summons to Memphis, by Peter Taylor

Finalist: Paradise, by Donald Barthelme

Finalist: Whites, by Norman Rush

1986

✓ Winner: Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

Finalist: The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler

Finalist: Continental Drift, by Russell Banks

1985

Winner: Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie

Finalist: I Wish This War Were Over, by Diana O’Hehir

Finalist: Leaving the Land, by Douglas Unger

1984

Winner: Ironweed, by William Kennedy

Finalist: Cathedral, by Raymond Carver

Finalist: The Feud, by Thomas Berger

1983

✓ Winner: The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

Finalist: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler

Finalist: Rabbis and Wives, by Chaim Grade

1982

Winner: Rabbit Is Rich, by John Updike

Finalist: A Flag for Sunrise, by Robert Stone

Finalist: Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson

1981

Winner: A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win)

Finalist: Godric, by Frederick Buechner

Finalist: So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell

1980

Winner: The Executioner’s Song, by Norman Mailer

Finalist: Birdy, by William Wharton

Finalist: The Ghost Writer, by Philip Roth

1979

Winner: The Stories of John Cheever, by John Cheever

1978

Winner: Elbow Room, by James Alan McPherson

1977

Winner: No award given

Finalist: A River Runs Through It, by Norman MacLean

Finalist: Roots, by Alex Haley (special Pulitzer Prize)

1976

Winner: Humboldt’s Gift, by Saul Bellow

1975

Winner: The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara

1974

Winner: No award given

Finalist: Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon

1973

Winner: The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty

1972

☆ Winner: Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner

1971

Winner: No award given

1970

Winner: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, by Jean Stafford

1969

Winner: House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday

1968

Winner: The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron

1967

Winner: The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud

1966

Winner: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, by Katherine Anne Porter

1965

Winner: The Keepers of the House, by Shirley Ann Grau

1964

Winner: No award given

1963

Winner: The Reivers by William Faulkner, (posthumous win)

1961

✓ Winner: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

1960

Winner: Advise and Consent, by Allen Drury

1959

Winner: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, by Robert Lewis Taylor

1958

✓ Winner: A Death in the Family, by James Agee (posthumous win)

1957

No award given

Finalist: The Voice At The Back Door, by Elizabeth Spencer

1956

Winner: Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor

1955

Winner: A Fable, by William Faulkner

1954

Winner: No award given

1953

✓ Winner: The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

1952

Winner: The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk

1951

Winner: The Town, by Conrad Richter

1950

Winner: The Way West, by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

1949

Winner: Guard of Honor, by James Gould Cozzens

1948

Winner: Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener

1947

Winner: All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren

1946

Winner: no award given

1945

Winner: A Bell for Adano, by John Hersey

1944

Winner: Journey in the Dark, by Martin Flavin

1943

Winner: Dragon’s Teeth, by Upton Sinclair

1942

Winner: In This Our Life, by Ellen Glasgow

1941

Winner: no award given

1940

✓ Winner: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

1939

✓ Winner: The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1938

Winner: The Late George Apley, by John Phillips Marquand

1937

✓ Winner: Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

1936

Winner: Honey in the Horn, by Harold L. Davis

1935

Winner: Now in November, by Josephine Winslow Johnson

1934

Winner: Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller

1933

Winner: The Store, by Thomas Sigismund Stribling

1932

✓ Winner: The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck

1931

Winner: Years of Grace, by Margaret Ayer Barnes

1930

Winner: Laughing Boy, by Oliver La Farge

1929

Winner: Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin

1928

Winner: The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder

1927

Winner: Early Autumn, by Louis Bromfield

1926

Winner: Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize)

1925

Winner: So Big, by Edna Ferber

1924

Winner: The Able McLaughlins, by Margaret Wilson

1923

Winner: One of Ours, by Willa Cather

1922

Winner: Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington

1921

Winner: The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

1920

Winner: no award given

1919

Winner: The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington

1918

Winner: His Family, by Ernest Poole – 352 pages – classic American fiction; A New York man tries to build bridges of understanding with his adult daughters just prior to World War I.

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