Pulitzer Prize Reading List
Some time back, I set myself the challenge of reading all the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels. Over the years I have attacked this goal with more or less vigor, depending on my bandwidth at the time. And while I read several in the years before I even took on this challenge, it doesn’t “count” to me, for the purposes of this pursuit, unless I’ve written something up about it. (So there are about a dozen that I’m going to reread.)
My responses (37/99) are linked below. There’s usually a synopsis, maybe a few quotes, some new words, and occasionally, because I heart literary analysis: essay prompts/study questions.
2025 - James, by Percival Everett
2024 - Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips
2023 - Trust, by Hernan Diaz
2023 - Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolover
2022 - The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family, by Joshua Cohen
2021 - The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
2020 - The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
2019 - The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2018 - Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
2017 - The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
2016 - The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2015 - All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
2014 - The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
2012 - no award given
2011 - A Visit From The Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
2010 - Tinkers, by Paul Harding
2009 - Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
2007 - The Road, by Carmac McCarthy
2006 - March, by Geraldine Books
2005 - Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003 - Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
2002 - Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
1999 - The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
1998 - American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of An American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1996 - Independence Day, by Richard Ford
1995 - The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields
1994 - The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, by Robert Olen Butler
1992 - A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
1991 - Rabbit At Rest, by John Updike
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos
1989 - Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler
1988 - Beloved, by Toni Morrison
1987 - A Summons to Memphis, by Peter Taylor
1986 - Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
1985 - Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie
1984 - Ironweed, by William Kennedy
1983 - The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
1982 - Rabbit Is Rich, by John Updike
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
1980 - The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever, by John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room, by James Alan McPherson
1977 - no award given
1976 - Humboldt's Gift, by Saul Bellow
1975 - The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
1974 - no award given
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter, by Eudora Welty
1972 - Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
1971 - no award given
1970 - Collected Stories, by Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron
1967 - The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud
1966 - Collected Stories, by Katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House, by Shirley Ann Grau
1964 - no award given
1963 - The Reivers, by William Faulkner
1962 - The Edge of Sadness, by Edwin O'Connor
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
1960 - Advise and Consent, by Allen Drury
1959 - The Travels of Jaime McPheeters, by Robert Lewis Taylor
1958 - A Death In the Family, by James Agee
1957 - no award given
1956 - Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor
1955 - A Fable, by William Faulkner
1954 - no award given
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
1952 - The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk
1951 - The Town, by Conrad Richter
1950 - The Way West, by A.B. Guthrie
1949 - Guard of Honor, by James Gould Cozzens
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener
1947 - All The King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
1946 - no award given
1945 - A Bell for Adano, by John Hersey
1944 - Journey in the Dark, by Martin Flavin
1943 - Dragon's Teeth, by Upton Sinclair
1942 - In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1941 - no award given
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
1939 - The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1938 - The Late George Apley, by John Phillips Marquand
1937 - Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
1936 - Honey in the Horn, by Harold L. Davis
1935 - Now in November, by Josephine Winslow Johson
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller
1933 - The Store, by T.S. Stribling
1932 - The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
1931 - Years of Grace, by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1930 - Laughing Boy, by Oliver Lafarge
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder
1927 - Early Autumn, by Louis Bromfield
1926 - Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis
1925 - So Big, by Edna Ferber
1924 - The Abe McLaughlins, by Margaret Wilson
1923 - One of Ours, by Willa Cather
1922 - Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington
1921 - The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
1920 - no award given
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington
1918 - His Family, by Ernest Pool