Publication year 1992
Genre Novella, Fiction
Themes Memory, Femininity, Death, Politics & Government, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, US History
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.
Black Water
Blonde
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Chaos: Making a New Science
Clybourne Park
Confederate Reckoning
Cost of Living
Cuba: An American History
Disgraced
Doubt: A Parable
Embracing Defeat
Empire Falls
Everybody
Fairview
Fat Ham
Father Comes Home From the Wars
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
Gilead
Glengarry Glen Ross
G-Man
Publication year 1992
Genre Novella, Fiction
Themes Memory, Femininity, Death, Politics & Government, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, US History
Publication year 2000
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Gender Identity, Sexual Identity, Fame, Fathers, Mothers
Tags Love & Sexuality, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Publication year 1955
Genre Play, Fiction
Themes Family, Sexual Identity, Loneliness, Truth & Lies, Femininity, Masculinity
Tags Southern Gothic, Drama, Classic Fiction, Education, Education, American Literature, Southern Literature, World History, Dramatic Literature
First performed in 1955, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of American playwright Tennessee Williams’s best-known works. This classic play won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best American Play, and was adapted into a 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Adapted from Williams’s short story “Three Players of a Summer Game,” the three-act Cat on a Hot Tin Roof occurs in real-time as the Pollitt family gathers... Read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Summary
Publication year 1987
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Order & Chaos, Appearance & Reality, Space, Science & Technology
Tags Science & Nature, Philosophy, Business & Economics, Animals, Health, Technology, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy
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 2010
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Gender Identity, Race, The Past, Social Class, Community, Nation, Politics & Government, War, Justice
Tags US History, American Civil War, Military & War, World History, Politics & Government
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 2021
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Nation, Race, Colonialism, Community, Economics, Politics & Government, War
Tags World History, US History, Politics & Government
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 2015
Genre Play, Fiction
Themes Race, Fate, Literature
Tags American Civil War, Education, Education, Military & War, American Literature, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction
Publication year 2018
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Race, War, Religion & Spirituality
Tags Race & Racism, US History, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Politics & Government, American Civil War, Reconstruction Era, Military & War, World History, Biography
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