Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels
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Administered by Columbia University, The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is a highly esteemed and prestigious literary award that recognizes distinguished novels written by American authors. Established in 1917 by the provisions of Joseph Pulitzer's will, the Pulitzer Prize has since become a symbol of excellence in American literature. Each year, a panel of distinguished judges carefully evaluates a wide array of nominated works, considering their literary merit, impact, and contribution to the American literary landscape. While there are numerous nominees across various categories, only one exceptional novel is chosen as the winner in the Fiction category, making the Pulitzer Prize a coveted and highly competitive honor in the world of literature. This annual accolade not only celebrates outstanding literary achievements but also serves as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling in American culture. Below I am sharing a list of Pulitzer Prize winning novels over the years.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (1961)
“In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I love the daring spirit of Scout and Jem and the courage of Atticus who stood up for Bo. I loved the children’s courage to stand up against the dominant culture of which they lived.
If I were stuck in an elevator with Scout, I might ask her if she and Jem were scared when they went to Bo’s house. I might tell her how brave and adventurous she is. I might tell her my dad was also a lawyer, and how I hoped that he too would defend people who were not loved by society. I might tell her I envied that she had a brother, and a dad like that.”
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison (1988)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver (2023)
“[I’d be best friends with] Angus in Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I love her ability to accept a situation as is, and how that acceptance coexists/trying with wanting to save someone she loves. She has a sense of humor, a quality that’s essential to me. She knows when to back off. She’s articulate and very, very smart.”
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.
“Less” by Andrew Sean Greer (2018)
“[I’d be best friends with] Arthur Less in Less by Andrew Sean Greer. He’s a failed novelist about to turn fifty...there isn’t any way this man and I wouldn’t have the best times together. And now that I think about it, I’d like to revise my earlier “stuck in an elevator” answer to include Arthur Less WITH Amy Elliott-Dunne. Additionally, we have at least three bottles of great wine and an egregiously large charcuterie board to share. ”
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.
QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?
ANSWER: You accept them all.
What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.
Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.
“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr (2015)
“Anthony Doerr’s global best-seller All the Light We Cannot See was a revelation to me. Up until then my novels had been set in the 18th and 19th centuries, but his extraordinary prose and character empathy made me want to set a novel in World War 2. ”
Read my full interview with Tessa Harris.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt (2014)
“[ I’d be best friends with] Audrey (Theo’s mom) in The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. I loved her energy and fascination with art (which I also share), as well as her ability to create special moments for her son in a rather mundane existance. She just really resonated with me. ”
Read my full interview with Roxanne Veletzos.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by a longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love — and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
”Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout (2009)
“[What book character would you like to be stuck in an elevator with?]
Yikes! This question has me hyperventilating; not because I find it difficult to choose a character but rather because I am claustrophobic. That’s a good reason to go for Olive Kitteridge from Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. She would draw my attention away from the predicament. Olive’s prickly candidness reminds me of my grandmother, who I loved greatly. I would like to try and draw some small talk from her while, of course, bracing myself for her incisive response. I have no doubt Olive would intimidate the panic out of me.”
Read my full interview with Penny Haw.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy (2007)
“[What book character would you like to be stuck in an elevator with?]
The Man in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I would have a lot of questions for him, but I’d have to ask them quickly, as he’d probably have us out of there within minutes.”
Read my full interview with Shelley Nolden.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Roadis the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
“Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry (1986)
“[What book character would you like to be stuck in an elevator with?]
That’s easy. Gus McCrae, from Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Favorite Gus quotes:
”It’s fearsome for a man to have a woman start thinking right in front of him. It always leads to trouble.”
”If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.”
”I’m just tryin’ to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it’s my obligation to do less.””
Read my full interview with Julia Sullivan.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz (2008)
“I’d like to encourage readers to explore contemporary Latinx writers. I’ve already mentioned Esmeralda Santiago, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Xochitl Gonzalez. I also recommend Angie Cruz, Marisel Vera, Ivelisse Rodriguez, and Jaquira Díaz. Then, there are the big ones: Christina Garcia, Isabel Allende, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Junot Díaz. Happy reading!”
Read my full interview with Margarita Barresi.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.
“Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson (2005)
“I would love to have a deep conversation with the character, Lila Ames , the protagonist in the book, Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. It is part of a fiction trilogy that Oprah Winfrey recently recommended, which includes Gilead, earning Robinson a National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Lila was rescued from an abusive home, wandered with a band of people trying to survive before she found some stability and became a mother. I related to her situation, her bravery and - always alert - her sharp perception of her surroundings. I would rather skip a meeting stuck in an elevator, because that would make me feel trapped. I’d prefer to converse with her in a field of wildflowers in the springtime.”
Read my full interview with Janet Luongo.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle.
Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.
This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” by Michael Chabon (2001)
“[What book character would you like to be stuck in an elevator with?]
Perhaps it’s a bit of a cheat, but I’d go with The Escapist—the fictional Houdini-inspired superhero from Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The dude can get out of anywhere. ”
Read my full interview with W.M. Akers.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.
Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.
If you’re interested in WW2 novels, click here.
