Pulitzer Prize Fiction Awardees & Honorees

The Pulitzer Prizes are named after Joseph Pulitzer, an innovative 19th-century newspaper publisher who paved the way for university-level studies in journalism. Since 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes have honored the most distinguished achievements in journalism and the arts. Read on to discover our collection of study guides for those honored with this prestigious literary award.

Publication year 2010

Genre Play, Fiction

Tags Historical Drama, Race & Racism, Education, Education, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction

Bruce Norris' 2010 play, Clybourne Park, imagines the events that unfolded in, before, and after Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun. It takes place in the home purchased by Lena Younger in Hansberry's play, and, like her play, addresses issues of race, class, and gender. The play examines how conversations around these issues have, and have not, changed over fifty years, often using humor. The first act opens with Russ and Bev, a... Read Clybourne Park Summary

Publication year 2016

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Loneliness, Disability

Tags Drama, Relationships, Disability, Dramatic Literature, Poverty, Education, Education, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

Cost of Living, a play by Martyna Majok, premiered in 2016 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. It transferred to an off-Broadway theatre in 2017, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club, and is slated to debut on Broadway in fall, 2022. The play was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and also won a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. The title of the play refers not only to the monetary costs of... Read Cost of Living Summary

Publication year 2012

Genre Play, Fiction

Tags Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature, Religion & Spirituality

Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar, premiered in Chicago in 2012. Later that year, the play opened Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center. Disgraced won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013, opened on the West End in 2014, and made its Broadway premiere in 2015. Like the main character, Amir Akhtar is the son of Pakistani-American immigrants and was born in the United States. His work addresses the experience of being Muslim in America and the way Islamophobia... Read Disgraced Summary

Publication year 2005

Genre Play, Fiction

Tags Drama, Symbolic Narrative, Social Justice, Education, Education, World History, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction, Religion & Spirituality

Doubt: A Parable is a 2005 play by John Patrick Shanley that analyzes an instance of doubt and suspicion in a Catholic school in the Bronx in the 1960s. In nine scenes, the play tells the story of principal Sister Aloysius’s suspicions about an inappropriate relationship between a priest, Father Flynn, and a young male student.The play opens with Father Flynn giving a sermon, utilizing a parable about a young sailor whose ship sinks and... Read Doubt: A Parable Summary

Publication year 1999

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Justice, Power & Greed, Memory, Grief, War, Colonialism

Tags Asian History, World War II, Politics & Government, Military & War, Asian Literature, World History, Japanese Literature

Publication year 2001

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mothers, Fathers, Power & Greed, Social Class

Tags American Literature, Humor, Relationships, Modern Classic Fiction

In Empire Falls, published in 2001, award-winning author Richard Russo focuses his sharp observations on family, faith, and hope for the future in small-town America, where the factories have left, the populations are dwindling, and the prospects are shrinking. Miles Roby almost got out of Empire Falls, but his mother’s illness brought him back a semester shy of graduating college. Now he runs the Empire Grill, a landmark that still anchors the dying town, and... Read Empire Falls Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Fear, Love, Death, Religion & Spirituality, Order & Chaos, Good & Evil

Tags Drama, Symbolic Narrative, Grief & Death, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, American Literature, Dramatic Literature, Education, Education

Everybody, a one-act play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, premiered Off-Broadway in 2017 at the Signature Theatre and was first published in 2018. It is a modern retelling of Everyman, the most well-known and anthologized example of a medieval morality play, which was adapted from a Dutch play by an anonymous 15th century English writer. Morality plays first appeared in the 12th century, evolving from the Catholic Church’s cycle plays and liturgical dramas, which reenacted biblical scenes... Read Everybody Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Family, Race, Social Class, Justice

Tags Comedy & Satire, Race & Racism, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Dramatic Literature

Publication year 2023

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Family, Fathers, Mothers

Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature, Drama, LGBTQ+, Humor

Publication year 2004

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Death, Memory, Family, Daughters & Sons

Tags Historical Fiction, Christian, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Classic Fiction

Published in 2004, Gilead is Marilynne Robinson’s second novel and the first in the Gilead trilogy, which includes Home (2008) and Lila (2014). The story is written as a letter from dying Congregationalist minister John Ames to his young son. The letter is a bittersweet account of John’s life. With a slow, thoughtful pace and intimate tone, John shares past family memories and resolves an old personal grievance with his best friend’s son. As John... Read Gilead Summary

Publication year 1983

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Truth & Lies, Masculinity, Economics, Conflict

Tags Drama, Comedy & Satire, American Literature, Education, Education, World History, Dramatic Literature, Classic Fiction

The “coffee is for closers” line is considered one of the most iconic moments from playwright David Mamet’s entire oeuvre (Glengarry Glen Ross. Directed by James Foley, New Line Cinema, 1992). However, the line is actually nowhere to be found in the playscript for Glengarry Glenn Ross, which premiered at the National Theatre in London in 1983 and debuted on Broadway in 1984. Rather, it appears in the 1992 film adaptation, with a screenplay that... Read Glengarry Glen Ross Summary

Publication year 2022

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Politics & Government, Crime & Law, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Biography

Publication year 1936

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Love, Femininity, Perseverance, Coming of Age

Tags Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction, Romance, Military & War, American Civil War, Southern Literature, World History

Gone with the Wind (1936) is the only novel by author Margaret Mitchell published during her lifetime. It is an enduring but controversial classic of American literature, and according to one poll, its popularity among American readers is only exceeded by the Bible. Thirty million copies have been sold worldwide.The novel’s tale of the Civil War is told from the perspective of the wealthy planter class that ruled the antebellum South, a class from which... Read Gone With The Wind Summary

Publication year 2003

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Memory, Social Class, Politics & Government, Justice, Power & Greed

Tags European History, World History, Military & War, Politics & Government, Incarceration, Russian Literature

Publication year 1997

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Community

Tags Anthropology, World History, Anthropology, Science & Nature, Business & Economics, Sociology, Politics & Government

Historian and anthropologist Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) is a multidisciplinary study that uses anthropological, biological, evolutionary, and socio-economic analysis to chart the fates of different peoples throughout human history. Subtitled first as A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years, and later as The Fates of Human Societies, the book seeks to understand why some groups of people have prospered while others have failed to advance to the same extent... Read Guns, Germs, and Steel Summary