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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
92 winning novels and 81 more on the shortlists, 1918 to 2026. The other lists in The Novel Index show which of them have lasted.
Latest winner (2026): Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction honours American authors. It has been awarded since 1918, and a few years it wasn’t given at all, so the winners make a long and uneven reading list. The ones the other lists also pick are the best place to begin.
To Kill a Mockingbird is the easy start. The Grapes of Wrath is long and angry and worth it. Beloved asks for patience. The Road is short and very bleak, so pick your moment. Gilead is the quietest of the five: an old minister writing a long letter to his young son, best read slowly.
Winners and shortlists from Columbia University. The prize's own record · Every book from this prize in the index
The winners the lists rate highest
To Kill a Mockingbird is the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner the other lists rate highest, on 10 other lists.
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When the shortlist outlasted the winner
The widest gap came in 2002, when The Corrections lost to Empire Falls: it is now on 6 of our lists, the winner on 1.
Years when a shortlisted novel is now on more of our lists than the book that won.
| Year | Shortlisted | Lists | Winner | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Corrections Jonathan Franzen | 6 | Empire Falls | 1 |
| 1999 | The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver | 5 | The Hours | 1 |
| 1982 | Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson | 5 | Rabbit Is Rich | 2 |
| 1998 | Underworld Don DeLillo | 4 | American Pastoral | 3 |
Every Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, year by year
Angel Down won in 2026. The first winner, in 1918, was His Family.
| Year | Winner | Author | Tier | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Angel Down | Daniel Kraus | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2025 | James | Percival Everett | Rising Star | 5 |
| 2024 | Night Watch | Jayne Anne Phillips | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2023 | Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver | Rising Star | 4 |
| 2022 | The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family | Joshua Cohen | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2021 | The Night Watchman | Louise Erdrich | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2020 | The Nickel Boys | Colson Whitehead | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2019 | The Overstory | Richard Powers | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2018 | Less | Andrew Sean Greer | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2017 | The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead | All-Time Canon | 5 |
| 2016 | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2015 | All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr | Rising Star | 4 |
| 2014 | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2013 | The Orphan Master's Son | Adam Johnson | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2011 | A Visit from The Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 2010 | Tinkers | Paul Harding | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2009 | Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2008 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Díaz | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 2007 | The Road | Cormac McCarthy | All-Time Canon | 8 |
| 2006 | March | Geraldine Brooks | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2005 | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson | Essential | 5 |
| 2004 | The Known World | Edward P. Jones | Essential | 4 |
| 2003 | Middlesex | Jeffrey Eugenides | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 2002 | Empire Falls | Richard Russo | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2001 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1999 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1998 | American Pastoral | Philip Roth | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1997 | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer | Steven Millhauser | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1996 | Independence Day | Richard Ford | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1995 | The Stone Diaries | Carol Shields | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1994 | The Shipping News | E. Annie Proulx | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1992 | A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1991 | Rabbit at Rest | John Updike | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1990 | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love | Oscar Hijuelos | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1989 | Breathing Lessons | Anne Tyler | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1988 | Beloved | Toni Morrison | All-Time Canon | 9 |
| 1987 | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1986 | Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1985 | Foreign Affairs | Alison Lurie | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1984 | IRONWEED | William Kennedy | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1983 | The Color Purple | Alice Walker | Essential | 5 |
| 1982 | Rabbit Is Rich | John Updike | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1981 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | Acclaimed | 4 |
| 1980 | The Executioner's Song | Norman Mailer | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1976 | Humboldt's Gift | Saul Bellow | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1975 | The Killer Angels | Michael Shaara | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1973 | The Optimist's Daughter | Eudora Welty | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1972 | Angle of Repose | Wallace Stegner | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1969 | House Made of Dawn | N. Scott Momaday | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1968 | The Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1967 | The Fixer | Bernard Malamud | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1965 | The Keepers of the House | Shirley Ann Grau | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1963 | The Reivers | William Faulkner | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1962 | The Edge of Sadness | Edwin O'Connor | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1961 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | All-Time Canon | 11 |
| 1960 | Advise and Consent | Allen Drury | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1959 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Robert Lewis Taylor | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1958 | A Death in the Family | James Agee | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1956 | Andersonville | MacKinlay Kantor | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1955 | A Fable | William Faulkner | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1953 | The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | Essential | 5 |
| 1952 | The Caine Mutiny | Herman Wouk | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1951 | The Town | Conrad Richter | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1950 | The Way West | A. B. Guthrie | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1949 | Guard of Honor | James Gould Cozzens | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1947 | All the King's Men | Robert Penn Warren | Acclaimed | 4 |
| 1945 | A Bell for Adano | John Hersey | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1944 | Journey in the Dark | Martin Flavin | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1943 | Dragon's Teeth | Upton Sinclair | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1942 | In This Our Life | Ellen Glasgow | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1940 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | All-Time Canon | 10 |
| 1939 | The Yearling | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1938 | The Late George Apley | John Phillips Marquand | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1937 | Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell | Essential | 5 |
| 1936 | Honey in the Horn | Harold L. Davis | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1935 | Now in November | Josephine Winslow Johnson | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1934 | Lamb in His Bosom | Caroline Miller | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1933 | The Store | T. S. Stribling | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1932 | The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1931 | Years of Grace | Margaret Ayer Barnes | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1930 | Laughing Boy | Oliver La Farge | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1929 | Scarlet Sister Mary | Julia Peterkin | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1928 | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Thornton Wilder | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1927 | Early Autumn | Louis Bromfield | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1926 | Arrowsmith | Sinclair Lewis | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1925 | So Big | Edna Ferber | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1924 | The Able McLaughlins | Margaret Wilson | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1923 | One of Ours | Willa Cather | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1922 | Alice Adams | Booth Tarkington | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1921 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | Essential | 4 |
| 1919 | The Magnificent Ambersons | Booth Tarkington | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1918 | His Family | Ernest Poole | Acclaimed | 1 |
Lists used on this page
- The 100 best novels of all time, The Guardian (2026). Original list
- The 100 best novels written in English, The Guardian / Observer (2015). Original list
- The 100 greatest novels of all time, The Observer (2003). Original list
- The 100 best books of the 21st century, The Guardian (2019). Original list
- 100 novels that shaped our world, BBC Arts (2019). Original list
- 100 novels everyone should read, The Telegraph (2009). Original list
- All-Time 100 Novels, Time (2005). Original list
- 100 Best Novels (board's list), Modern Library (1998). Original list
- The 100 best books of the 21st century, The New York Times (2024). Original list
- Bokklubben World Library, Norwegian Book Clubs (2002). Original list
- 100 books of the century, Le Monde (1999). Original list
- Booker Prize (winners and shortlists), Booker Prize Foundation (1969-). Original list
- Women's Prize for Fiction (winners and shortlists), Women's Prize Trust (1996-). Original list
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists), Columbia University (1918-). Original list
- British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year (winners and shortlists), The Bookseller (1990-). Original list
- National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists), National Book Foundation (1950-). Original list
- The Big Read top 100, BBC (2003). Original list
- Readers' top 100 novels, The Guardian (2026). Original list
- The Great American Read, PBS (2018). Original list
- Goodreads Choice Awards: Fiction and Historical Fiction winners, Goodreads (2009-). Original list
- Waterstones Book of the Year (winners and shortlists), Waterstones (2012-). Original list
- 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, Amazon.co.uk (2014). Original list
- Oprah's Book Club picks, Oprah's Book Club (1996-). Original list