Arts & Culture
Pulitzer Prize
American award
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Category:
Arts & Culture
- Related Topics:
- dramatic literature
- biography
- poetry
- journalism
- Editorial Cartooning
- Notable Honorees:
- John F. Kennedy
- George Gershwin
- Bob Dylan
- Eugene O’Neill
Recent News
Apr. 13, 2024, 12:10 PM ET (Washington Post)
Alfonso Chardy, journalist who helped expose Iran-contra affair, dies at 72
Apr. 12, 2024, 1:51 AM ET (NBC)
Ex-Ford foundation member calls Liz Cheney 'only person on this planet' worthy of top award after snub he says was over Trump
Apr. 6, 2024, 7:39 AM ET (ABC News (U.S.))
Retired dean married to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer found shot to death on Vermont trail
Apr. 4, 2024, 1:22 AM ET (Washington Post)
Christopher Durang, Tony-winning playwright with acid wit, dies at 75
Apr. 2, 2024, 3:40 PM ET (ABC News (Australia))
Origin director Ava DuVernay on grief and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who inspired her latest film
Pulitzer Prize, any of a series of annual prizes awarded by Columbia University, New York City, for outstanding public service and achievement in American journalism, letters, and music. Fellowships are also awarded. The prizes, originally endowed with a gift of $500,000 from the newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, are highly esteemed and have been awarded each May since 1917. The awards are made by Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board, composed of judges appointed by the university. The prizes have varied in number and category over the years but currently number 14 prizes in the field of journalism, 6 prizes in letters, and 1 prize in music.
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography are listed in the table.
Britannica Quiz
Literary Awards Quiz
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *Awarded posthumously. | ||
| **Freeman died in 1953 after completing vol. 1–6; Carroll and Ashworth continued his work with vol. 7. | ||
| ***Awarded posthumously to Les Payne. | ||
| ****Awarded posthumously to Winfred Rembert. | ||
| 1917 | Julia Ward Howe | Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards and Maude Howe Elliott; assisted by Florence Howe Hall |
| 1918 | Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed: A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on His Own Writings | William Cabell Bruce |
| 1919 | The Education of Henry Adams* | Henry Adams |
| 1920 | The Life of John Marshall, 4 vol. | Albert J. Beveridge |
| 1921 | The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After | Edward Bok |
| 1922 | A Daughter of the Middle Border | Hamlin Garland |
| 1923 | The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page | Burton J. Hendrick |
| 1924 | From Immigrant to Inventor | Michael Idvorsky Pupin |
| 1925 | Barrett Wendell and His Letters | M.A. De Wolfe Howe |
| 1926 | The Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vol. | Harvey Cushing |
| 1927 | Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative | Emory Holloway |
| 1928 | The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas | Charles Edward Russell |
| 1929 | The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, 1855–1913 | Burton J. Hendrick |
| 1930 | The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston | Marquis James |
| 1931 | Charles W. Eliot: President of Harvard University, 1869–1909, 2 vol. | Henry James |
| 1932 | Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography | Henry F. Pringle |
| 1933 | Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage | Allan Nevins |
| 1934 | John Hay: From Poetry to Politics | Tyler Dennett |
| 1935 | R.E. Lee: A Biography, 4 vol. | Douglas S. Freeman |
| 1936 | The Thought and Character of William James, As Revealed in Unpublished Correspondence and Notes, Together with His Published Writings, 2 vol. | Ralph Barton Perry |
| 1937 | Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration | Allan Nevins |
| 1938 | Andrew Jackson, 2 vol. | Marquis James |
| Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott | Odell Shepard | |
| 1939 | Benjamin Franklin | Carl Van Doren |
| 1940 | Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters: War Leader, vol. 7; Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters: Armistice, vol. 8 | Ray Stannard Baker |
| 1941 | Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: A Biography | Ola Elizabeth Winslow |
| 1942 | Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe | Forrest Wilson |
| 1943 | Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, 2 vol. | Samuel Eliot Morison |
| 1944 | The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F.B. Morse | Carleton Mabee |
| 1945 | George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel | Russell Blaine Nye |
| 1946 | Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir | Linnie Marsh Wolfe |
| 1947 | The Autobiography of William Allen White | William Allen White |
| 1948 | Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow | Margaret Clapp |
| 1949 | Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History | Robert E. Sherwood |
| 1950 | John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy | Samuel Flagg Bemis |
| 1951 | John C. Calhoun: American Portrait | Margaret Louise Coit |
| 1952 | Charles Evans Hughes, 2 vol. | Merlo J. Pusey |
| 1953 | Edmund Pendleton, 1721–1803: A Biography, 2 vol. | David J. Mays |
| 1954 | The Spirit of St. Louis | Charles A. Lindbergh |
| 1955 | The Taft Story | William S. White |
| 1956 | Benjamin Henry Latrobe | Talbot Faulkner Hamlin |
| 1957 | Profiles in Courage | John F. Kennedy |
| 1958 | George Washington, 7 vol.** | Douglas Southall Freeman, John Alexander Carroll, and Mary Wells Ashworth |
| 1959 | Woodrow Wilson: American Prophet, vol. 1 | Arthur Walworth |
| 1960 | John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography | Samuel Eliot Morison |
| 1961 | Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War | David Herbert Donald |
| 1962 | no award | |
| 1963 | Henry James: The Conquest of London, 1870–1883, vol. 2; Henry James: The Middle Years, 1882–1895, vol. 3 | Leon Edel |
| 1964 | John Keats | Walter Jackson Bate |
| 1965 | Henry Adams, 3 vol. | Ernest Samuels |
| 1966 | A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House | Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. |
| 1967 | Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain | Justin Kaplan |
| 1968 | Memoirs: 1925–1950 | George F. Kennan |
| 1969 | The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends | Benjamin Lawrence Reid |
| 1970 | Huey Long | T. Harry Williams |
| 1971 | Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938 | Lawrance Thompson |
| 1972 | Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers | Joseph P. Lash |
| 1973 | Luce and His Empire | W.A. Swanberg |
| 1974 | O'Neill, Son and Artist | Louis Sheaffer |
| 1975 | The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York | Robert A. Caro |
| 1976 | Edith Wharton: A Biography | R.W.B. Lewis |
| 1977 | A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence | John E. Mack |
| 1978 | Samuel Johnson | Walter Jackson Bate |
| 1979 | Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews | Leonard Baker |
| 1980 | The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt | Edmund Morris |
| 1981 | Peter the Great: His Life and World | Robert K. Massie |
| 1982 | Grant: A Biography | William McFeely |
| 1983 | Growing Up | Russell Baker |
| 1984 | Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 | Louis R. Harlan |
| 1985 | The Life and Times of Cotton Mather | Kenneth Silverman |
| 1986 | Louise Bogan: A Portrait | Elizabeth Frank |
| 1987 | Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference | David J. Garrow |
| 1988 | Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe | David Herbert Donald |
| 1989 | Oscar Wilde* | Richard Ellmann |
| 1990 | Machiavelli in Hell | Sebastian de Grazia |
| 1991 | Jackson Pollock: An American Saga | Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith |
| 1992 | Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet | Lewis B. Puller, Jr. |
| 1993 | Truman | David McCullough |
| 1994 | W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 | David Levering Lewis |
| 1995 | Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life | Joan D. Hedrick |
| 1996 | God: A Biography | Jack Miles |
| 1997 | Angela's Ashes: A Memoir | Frank McCourt |
| 1998 | Personal History | Katharine Graham |
| 1999 | Lindbergh | A. Scott Berg |
| 2000 | Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) | Stacy Schiff |
| 2001 | W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 | David Levering Lewis |
| 2002 | John Adams | David McCullough |
| 2003 | The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, vol. 3 | Robert A. Caro |
| 2004 | Khrushchev: The Man and His Era | William Taubman |
| 2005 | De Kooning: An American Master | Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan |
| 2006 | American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin |
| 2007 | The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher | Debby Applegate |
| 2008 | Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father | John Matteson |
| 2009 | American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House | Jon Meacham |
| 2010 | The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt | T.J. Stiles |
| 2011 | Washington: A Life | Ron Chernow |
| 2012 | George F. Kennan: An American Life | John Lewis Gaddis |
| 2013 | The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo | Tom Reiss |
| 2014 | Margaret Fuller: A New American Life | Megan Marshall |
| 2015 | The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe | David I. Kertzer |
| 2016 | Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life | William Finnegan |
| 2017 | The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between | Hisham Matar |
| 2018 | Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder | Caroline Fraser |
| 2019 | The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke | Jeffrey C. Stewart |
| 2020 | Sontag: Her Life and Work | Benjamin Moser |
| 2021 | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X*** | Les Payne and Tamara Payne |
| 2022 | Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South**** | Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly |
| 2023 | G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century | Beverly Gage |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama are listed in the table.
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *Awarded posthumously. | ||
| 1917 | no award | |
| 1918 | Why Marry? | Jesse Lynch Williams |
| 1919 | no award | |
| 1920 | Beyond the Horizon | Eugene O'Neill |
| 1921 | Miss Lulu Bett | Zona Gale |
| 1922 | Anna Christie | Eugene O'Neill |
| 1923 | Icebound | Owen Davis |
| 1924 | Hell-Bent fer Heaven | Hatcher Hughes |
| 1925 | They Knew What They Wanted | Sidney Howard |
| 1926 | Craig's Wife | George Kelly |
| 1927 | In Abraham's Bosom | Paul Green |
| 1928 | Strange Interlude | Eugene O'Neill |
| 1929 | Street Scene | Elmer L. Rice |
| 1930 | The Green Pastures | Marc Connelly |
| 1931 | Alison's House | Susan Glaspell |
| 1932 | Of Thee I Sing | George S. Kaufman (writer), Morrie Ryskind (writer), and Ira Gershwin (lyricist) |
| 1933 | Both Your Houses | Maxwell Anderson |
| 1934 | Men in White | Sidney Kingsley |
| 1935 | The Old Maid | Zoe Akins |
| 1936 | Idiot's Delight | Robert E. Sherwood |
| 1937 | You Can't Take It with You | Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman |
| 1938 | Our Town | Thornton Wilder |
| 1939 | Abe Lincoln in Illinois | Robert E. Sherwood |
| 1940 | The Time of Your Life | William Saroyan |
| 1941 | There Shall Be No Night | Robert E. Sherwood |
| 1942 | no award | |
| 1943 | The Skin of Our Teeth | Thornton Wilder |
| 1944 | no award | |
| 1945 | Harvey | Mary Chase |
| 1946 | State of the Union | Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay |
| 1947 | no award | |
| 1948 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Tennessee Williams |
| 1949 | Death of a Salesman | Arthur Miller |
| 1950 | South Pacific | Richard Rodgers (composer), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyricist/writer), and Joshua Logan (writer) |
| 1951 | no award | |
| 1952 | The Shrike | Joseph Kramm |
| 1953 | Picnic | William Inge |
| 1954 | The Teahouse of the August Moon | John Patrick |
| 1955 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Tennessee Williams |
| 1956 | The Diary of Anne Frank | Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich |
| 1957 | Long Day's Journey into Night* | Eugene O'Neill |
| 1958 | Look Homeward, Angel | Ketti Frings |
| 1959 | J.B. | Archibald MacLeish |
| 1960 | Fiorello! | Jerome Weidman (writer), George Abbott (writer), Jerry Bock (composer), and Sheldon Harnick (lyricist) |
| 1961 | All the Way Home | Tad Mosel |
| 1962 | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying | Frank Loesser (composer/lyricist) and Abe Burrows (writer) |
| 1963 | no award | |
| 1964 | no award | |
| 1965 | The Subject Was Roses | Frank D. Gilroy |
| 1966 | no award | |
| 1967 | A Delicate Balance | Edward Albee |
| 1968 | no award | |
| 1969 | The Great White Hope | Howard Sackler |
| 1970 | No Place to Be Somebody | Charles Gordone |
| 1971 | The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds | Paul Zindel |
| 1972 | no award | |
| 1973 | That Championship Season | Jason Miller |
| 1974 | no award | |
| 1975 | Seascape | Edward Albee |
| 1976 | A Chorus Line | Michael Bennett (choreographer/director), James Kirkwood (writer), Nicholas Dante (writer), Marvin Hamlisch (composer), and Edward Kleban (lyricist) |
| 1977 | The Shadow Box | Michael Cristofer |
| 1978 | The Gin Game | Donald L. Coburn |
| 1979 | Buried Child | Sam Shepard |
| 1980 | Talley's Folly | Lanford Wilson |
| 1981 | Crimes of the Heart | Beth Henley |
| 1982 | A Soldier's Play | Charles Fuller |
| 1983 | 'Night, Mother | Marsha Norman |
| 1984 | Glengarry Glen Ross | David Mamet |
| 1985 | Sunday in the Park with George | Stephen Sondheim (composer/lyricist) and James Lapine (writer) |
| 1986 | no award | |
| 1987 | Fences | August Wilson |
| 1988 | Driving Miss Daisy | Alfred Uhry |
| 1989 | The Heidi Chronicles | Wendy Wasserstein |
| 1990 | The Piano Lesson | August Wilson |
| 1991 | Lost in Yonkers | Neil Simon |
| 1992 | The Kentucky Cycle | Robert Schenkkan |
| 1993 | Angels in America: Millennium Approaches | Tony Kushner |
| 1994 | Three Tall Women | Edward Albee |
| 1995 | The Young Man from Atlanta | Horton Foote |
| 1996 | Rent* | Jonathan Larson |
| 1997 | no award | |
| 1998 | How I Learned to Drive | Paula Vogel |
| 1999 | Wit | Margaret Edson |
| 2000 | Dinner with Friends | Donald Margulies |
| 2001 | Proof | David Auburn |
| 2002 | Topdog/Underdog | Suzan-Lori Parks |
| 2003 | Anna in the Tropics | Nilo Cruz |
| 2004 | I Am My Own Wife | Doug Wright |
| 2005 | Doubt: A Parable | John Patrick Shanley |
| 2006 | no award | |
| 2007 | Rabbit Hole | David Lindsay-Abaire |
| 2008 | August: Osage County | Tracy Letts |
| 2009 | Ruined | Lynn Nottage |
| 2010 | Next to Normal | Tom Kitt (composer) and Brian Yorkey (writer/lyricist) |
| 2011 | Clybourne Park | Bruce Norris |
| 2012 | Water by the Spoonful | Quiara Alegría Hudes |
| 2013 | Disgraced | Ayad Akhtar |
| 2014 | The Flick | Annie Baker |
| 2015 | Between Riverside and Crazy | Stephen Adly Guirgis |
| 2016 | Hamilton | Lin-Manuel Miranda |
| 2017 | Sweat | Lynn Nottage |
| 2018 | Cost of Living | Martyna Majok |
| 2019 | Fairview | Jackie Sibblies Drury |
| 2020 | A Strange Loop | Michael R. Jackson |
| 2021 | The Hot Wing King | Katori Hall |
| 2022 | Fat Ham | James Ijames |
| 2023 | English | Sanaz Toossi |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
The colorful life of The Color Purple author Alice Walker
Alice Walker published The Color Purple in 1982. With it, she became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
See all videos for this articleWinners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction are listed in the table.
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *Prior to 1948 the category was “novel” rather than fiction. | ||
| **Work published and prize awarded posthumously. | ||
| 1917 | no award | |
| 1918 | His Family | Ernest Poole |
| 1919 | The Magnificent Ambersons | Booth Tarkington |
| 1920 | no award | |
| 1921 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton |
| 1922 | Alice Adams | Booth Tarkington |
| 1923 | One of Ours | Willa Cather |
| 1924 | The Able McLaughlins | Margaret Wilson |
| 1925 | So Big | Edna Ferber |
| 1926 | Arrowsmith | Sinclair Lewis (declined) |
| 1927 |
|
Louis Bromfield |
| 1928 | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Thornton Wilder |
| 1929 | Scarlet Sister Mary | Julia Peterkin |
| 1930 | Laughing Boy | Oliver La Farge |
| 1931 | Years of Grace | Margaret Ayer Barnes |
| 1932 | The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck |
| 1933 | The Store | T.S. Stribling |
| 1934 | Lamb in His Bosom | Caroline Miller |
| 1935 | Now in November | Josephine Winslow Johnson |
| 1936 | Honey in the Horn | H.L. Davis |
| 1937 | Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
| 1938 | The Late George Apley: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir | J.P. Marquand |
| 1939 | The Yearling | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |
| 1940 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| 1941 | no award | |
| 1942 | In This Our Life | Ellen Glasgow |
| 1943 | Dragon's Teeth | Upton Sinclair |
| 1944 | Journey in the Dark | Martin Flavin |
| 1945 | A Bell for Adano | John Hersey |
| 1946 | no award | |
| 1947 | All the King's Men | Robert Penn Warren |
| 1948 | Tales of the South Pacific | James A. Michener |
| 1949 | Guard of Honor | James Gould Cozzens |
| 1950 | The Way West | A.B. Guthrie, Jr. |
| 1951 | The Town | Conrad Richter |
| 1952 | The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II | Herman Wouk |
| 1953 | The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway |
| 1954 | no award | |
| 1955 | A Fable | William Faulkner |
| 1956 | Andersonville | MacKinlay Kantor |
| 1957 | no award | |
| 1958 | A Death in the Family** | James Agee |
| 1959 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Robert Lewis Taylor |
| 1960 | Advise and Consent | Allen Drury |
| 1961 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| 1962 | The Edge of Sadness | Edwin O'Connor |
| 1963 | The Reivers: A Reminiscence | William Faulkner |
| 1964 | no award | |
| 1965 | The Keepers of the House | Shirley Ann Grau |
| 1966 | The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter | Katherine Anne Porter |
| 1967 | The Fixer | Bernard Malamud |
| 1968 | The Confessions of Nat Turner | William Styron |
| 1969 | House Made of Dawn | N. Scott Momaday |
| 1970 | The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford | Jean Stafford |
| 1971 | no award | |
| 1972 | Angle of Repose | Wallace Stegner |
| 1973 | The Optimist's Daughter | Eudora Welty |
| 1974 | no award | |
| 1975 | The Killer Angels | Michael Shaara |
| 1976 | Humboldt's Gift | Saul Bellow |
| 1977 | no award | |
| 1978 | Elbow Room | James Alan McPherson |
| 1979 | The Stories of John Cheever | John Cheever |
| 1980 | The Executioner's Song | Norman Mailer |
| 1981 | A Confederacy of Dunces** | John Kennedy Toole |
| 1982 | Rabbit Is Rich | John Updike |
| 1983 | The Color Purple | Alice Walker |
| 1984 | Ironweed | William Kennedy |
| 1985 | Foreign Affairs | Alison Lurie |
| 1986 | Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry |
| 1987 | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor |
| 1988 | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
| 1989 | Breathing Lessons | Anne Tyler |
| 1990 | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love | Oscar Hijuelos |
| 1991 | Rabbit at Rest | John Updike |
| 1992 | A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley |
| 1993 | A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories | Robert Olen Butler |
| 1994 | The Shipping News | E. Annie Proulx |
| 1995 | The Stone Diaries | Carol Shields |
| 1996 | Independence Day | Richard Ford |
| 1997 | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer | Steven Millhauser |
| 1998 | American Pastoral | Philip Roth |
| 1999 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham |
| 2000 | Interpreter of Maladies: Stories | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 2001 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon |
| 2002 | Empire Falls | Richard Russo |
| 2003 | Middlesex | Jeffrey Eugenides |
| 2004 | The Known World | Edward P. Jones |
| 2005 | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson |
| 2006 | March | Geraldine Brooks |
| 2007 | The Road | Cormac McCarthy |
| 2008 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Díaz |
| 2009 | Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout |
| 2010 | Tinkers | Paul Harding |
| 2011 | A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan |
| 2012 | no award | |
| 2013 | The Orphan Master's Son | Adam Johnson |
| 2014 | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt |
| 2015 | All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr |
| 2016 | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen |
| 2017 | The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead |
| 2018 | Less | Andrew Sean Greer |
| 2019 | The Overstory | Richard Powers |
| 2020 | The Nickel Boys | Colson Whitehead |
| 2021 | The Night Watchman | Louise Erdrich |
| 2022 | The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family | Joshua Cohen |
| 2023 | Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver |
| Trust | Hernan Diaz | |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction are listed in the table.
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *Awarded posthumously. | ||
| 1962 | The Making of the President, 1960 | Theodore H. White |
| 1963 | The Guns of August | Barbara W. Tuchman |
| 1964 | Anti-intellectualism in American Life | Richard Hofstadter |
| 1965 | O Strange New World: American Culture, the Formative Years | Howard Mumford Jones |
| 1966 | Wandering Through Winter: A Naturalist's Record of a 20,000-Mile Journey Through the North American Winter | Edwin Way Teale |
| 1967 | The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture | David Brion Davis |
| 1968 | Rousseau and Revolution: A History of Civilization in France, England, and Germany from 1756 and in the Remainder of Europe from 1715 to 1789 | Will and Ariel Durant |
| 1969 | The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History | Norman Mailer |
| So Human an Animal | Rene Jules Dubos | |
| 1970 | Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Non-violence | Erik H. Erikson |
| 1971 | The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 | John Toland |
| 1972 | Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945 | Barbara W. Tuchman |
| 1973 | Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam | Frances Fitzgerald |
| Children of Crisis, vol. 2 and 3 | Robert Coles | |
| 1974 | The Denial of Death* | Ernest Becker |
| 1975 | Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | Annie Dillard |
| 1976 | Why Survive?: Being Old in America | Robert N. Butler |
| 1977 | Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay | William W. Warner |
| 1978 | The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence | Carl Sagan |
| 1979 | On Human Nature | Edward O. Wilson |
| 1980 | Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid | Douglas R. Hofstadter |
| 1981 | Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture | Carl E. Schorske |
| 1982 | The Soul of a New Machine | Tracy Kidder |
| 1983 | Is There No Place on Earth for Me? | Susan Sheehan |
| 1984 | The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry | Paul Starr |
| 1985 | The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two | Studs Terkel |
| 1986 | Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families | J. Anthony Lukas |
| Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White | Joseph Lelyveld | |
| 1987 | Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land | David K. Shipler |
| 1988 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes |
| 1989 | A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam | Neil Sheehan |
| 1990 | And Their Children After Them: The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: James Agee, Walker Evans, and the Rise and Fall of Cotton in the South | Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson |
| 1991 | The Ants | Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson |
| 1992 | The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power | Daniel Yergin |
| 1993 | Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America | Garry Wills |
| 1994 | Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire | David Remnick |
| 1995 | The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time | Jonathan Weiner |
| 1996 | The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism | Tina Rosenberg |
| 1997 | Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris | Richard Kluger |
| 1998 | Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | Jared Diamond |
| 1999 | Annals of the Former World | John McPhee |
| 2000 | Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | John W. Dower |
| 2001 | Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan | Herbert P. Bix |
| 2002 | Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution | Diane McWhorter |
| 2003 | “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide | Samantha Power |
| 2004 | Gulag: A History | Anne Applebaum |
| 2005 | Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 | Steve Coll |
| 2006 | Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya | Caroline Elkins |
| 2007 | The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 | Lawrence Wright |
| 2008 | The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945 | Saul Friedländer |
| 2009 | Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II | Douglas A. Blackmon |
| 2010 | The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy | David E. Hoffman |
| 2011 | The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer | Siddhartha Mukherjee |
| 2012 | The Swerve: How The World Became Modern | Stephen Greenblatt |
| 2013 | Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America | Gilbert King |
| 2014 | Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation | Dan Fagin |
| 2015 | The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History | Elizabeth Kolbert |
| 2016 | Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS | Joby Warrick |
| 2017 | Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City | Matthew Desmond |
| 2018 | Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America | James Forman, Jr. |
| 2019 | Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America | Eliza Griswold |
| 2020 | The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America | Greg Grandin |
| The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care | Anne Boyer | |
| 2021 | Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy | David Zucchino |
| 2022 | Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City | Andrea Elliott |
| 2023 | His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice | Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for history
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for history are listed in the table.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *Awarded posthumously. | ||
| **Potter died before completing the work; Fehrenbacher wrote the final chapters and edited it. | ||
| ***Editor. | ||
| 1917 | With Americans of Past and Present Days | J.J. Jusserand |
| 1918 | History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 | James Ford Rhodes |
| 1919 | no award | |
| 1920 | The War with Mexico, 2 vol. | Justin H. Smith |
| 1921 | The Victory at Sea | William Sowden Sims and Burton J. Hendrick |
| 1922 | The Founding of New England | James Truslow Adams |
| 1923 | The Supreme Court in United States History | Charles Warren |
| 1924 | The American Revolution: A Constitutional Interpretation | Charles Howard McIlwain |
| 1925 | History of the American Frontier | Frederic L. Paxson |
| 1926 | A History of the United States | Edward Channing |
| 1927 | Pinckney's Treaty | Samuel Flagg Bemis |
| 1928 | Main Currents in American Thought, 2 vol. | Vernon Louis Parrington |
| 1929 | The Organization and Administration of the Union Army, 1861–1865 | Fred Albert Shannon |
| 1930 | The War of Independence | Claude H. Van Tyne |
| 1931 | The Coming of the War, 1914, 2 vol. | Bernadotte E. Schmitt |
| 1932 | My Experiences in the World War, 2 vol. | John J. Pershing |
| 1933 | The Significance of Sections in American History* | Frederick J. Turner |
| 1934 | The People's Choice, from Washington to Harding: A Study in Democracy | Herbert Agar |
| 1935 | The Colonial Period of American History | Charles McLean Andrews |
| 1936 | A Constitutional History of the United States | Andrew C. McLaughlin |
| 1937 | The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 | Van Wyck Brooks |
| 1938 | The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 | Paul Herman Buck |
| 1939 | A History of American Magazines | Frank Luther Mott |
| 1940 | Abraham Lincoln: The War Years | Carl Sandburg |
| 1941 | The Atlantic Migration,1607–1860: A History of the Continuing Settlement of the United States | Marcus Lee Hansen |
| 1942 | Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 | Margaret Leech |
| 1943 | Paul Revere and the World He Lived In | Esther Forbes |
| 1944 | The Growth of American Thought | Merle Curti |
| 1945 | Unfinished Business | Stephen Bonsal |
| 1946 | The Age of Jackson | Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. |
| 1947 | Scientists Against Time | James Phinney Baxter III |
| 1948 | Across the Wide Missouri | Bernard De Voto |
| 1949 | The Disruption of American Democracy | Roy Franklin Nichols |
| 1950 | Art and Life in America | Oliver W. Larkin |
| 1951 | The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815–1840, 2 vol. | R. Carlyle Buley |
| 1952 | The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People | Oscar Handlin |
| 1953 | The Era of Good Feelings | George Dangerfield |
| 1954 | A Stillness at Appomattox | Bruce Catton |
| 1955 | Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History | Paul Horgan |
| 1956 | The Age of Reform: From Bryan to FDR | Richard Hofstadter |
| 1957 | Russia Leaves the War: Soviet-American Relations, 1917–1920 | George F. Kennan |
| 1958 | Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War | Bray Hammond |
| 1959 | The Republican Era, 1869–1901: A Study in Administrative History | Leonard D. White and Jean Schneider |
| 1960 | In the Days of McKinley | Margaret Leech |
| 1961 | Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference | Herbert Feis |
| 1962 | The Triumphant Empire: Thunder-Clouds Gather in the West, 1763–1766 | Lawrence H. Gipson |
| 1963 | Washington: Village and Capital, 1800–1878 | Constance McLaughlin Green |
| 1964 | Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town | Sumner Chilton Powell |
| 1965 | The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865–1879 | Irwin Unger |
| 1966 | The Life of the Mind in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War, 3 vol.* | Perry Miller |
| 1967 | Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West | William H. Goetzmann |
| 1968 | The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution | Bernard Bailyn |
| 1969 | Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right Against Self-Incrimination | Leonard W. Levy |
| 1970 | Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department | Dean Acheson |
| 1971 | Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom | James MacGregor Burns |
| 1972 | Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States | Carl N. Degler |
| 1973 | People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization | Michael Kammen |
| 1974 | The Americans: The Democratic Experience | Daniel J. Boorstin |
| 1975 | Jefferson and His Time, 5 vol. | Dumas Malone |
| 1976 | Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times | Paul Horgan |
| 1977 | The Impending Crisis: 1848–1861** | David M. Potter and Don E. Fehrenbacher |
| 1978 | The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business | Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. |
| 1979 | The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics | Don E. Fehrenbacher |
| 1980 | Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery | Leon F. Litwack |
| 1981 | American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876 | Lawrence A. Cremin |
| 1982 | Mary Chesnut's Civil War | C. Vann Woodward*** |
| 1983 | The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 | Rhys L. Isaac |
| 1984 | no award | |
| 1985 | Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Lundis, Alfred E. Kahn | Thomas K. McCraw |
| 1986 | The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age | Walter A. McDougall |
| 1987 | Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution | Bernard Bailyn |
| 1988 | The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876 | Robert V. Bruce |
| 1989 | Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era | James M. McPherson |
| Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 | Taylor Branch | |
| 1990 | In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines | Stanley Karnow |
| 1991 | A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich |
| 1992 | The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties | Mark E. Neely, Jr. |
| 1993 | The Radicalism of the American Revolution | Gordon S. Wood |
| 1994 | no award | |
| 1995 | No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II | Doris Kearns Goodwin |
| 1996 | William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic | Alan Taylor |
| 1997 | Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution | Jack N. Rakove |
| 1998 | Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion | Edward J. Larson |
| 1999 | Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 | Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace |
| 2000 | Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 | David M. Kennedy |
| 2001 | Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation | Joseph J. Ellis |
| 2002 | The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America | Louis Menand |
| 2003 | An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943 | Rick Atkinson |
| 2004 | A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration | Steven Hahn |
| 2005 | Washington's Crossing | David Hackett Fischer |
| 2006 | Polio: An American Story | David M. Oshinsky |
| 2007 | The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation | Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff |
| 2008 | What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 | Daniel Walker Howe |
| 2009 | The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family | Annette Gordon-Reed |
| 2010 | Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World | Liaquat Ahamed |
| 2011 | The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery | Eric Foner |
| 2012 | Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention* | Manning Marable |
| 2013 | Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam | Fredrik Logevall |
| 2014 | The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832 | Alan Taylor |
| 2015 | Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People | Elizabeth A. Fenn |
| 2016 | Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America | T.J. Stiles |
| 2017 | Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy | Heather Ann Thompson |
| 2018 | The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea | Jack E. Davis |
| 2019 | Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom | David W. Blight |
| 2020 | Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America | W. Caleb McDaniel |
| 2021 | Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America | Marcia Chatelain |
| 2022 | Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America | Nicole Eustace |
| Cuba: An American History | Ada Ferrer | |
| 2023 | Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power | Jefferson Cowie |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for music
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for music are listed in the table.
| year | title | composer |
|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song | William Schuman |
| 1944 | Symphony No. 4, Opus 34 | Howard Hanson |
| 1945 | Appalachian Spring (ballet) | Aaron Copland |
| 1946 | The Canticle of the Sun (cantata) | Leo Sowerby |
| 1947 | Symphony No. 3 | Charles Ives |
| 1948 | Symphony No. 3 | Walter Piston |
| 1949 | music for the film Louisiana Story | Virgil Thomson |
| 1950 | The Consul (opera) | Gian Carlo Menotti |
| 1951 | Giants in the Earth (opera) | Douglas S. Moore |
| 1952 | Symphony Concertante | Gail Kubik |
| 1953 | no award | |
| 1954 | Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra | Quincy Porter |
| 1955 | The Saint of Bleecker Street (opera) | Gian Carlo Menotti |
| 1956 | Symphony No. 3 | Ernst Toch |
| 1957 | Meditation on Ecclesiastes (for string orchestra) | Norman Dello Joio |
| 1958 | Vanessa (opera) | Samuel Barber |
| 1959 | Concerto for Piano and Orchestra | John LaMontaine |
| 1960 | Second String Quartet | Elliott Carter |
| 1961 | Symphony No. 7 | Walter Piston |
| 1962 | The Crucible (opera) | Robert Ward |
| 1963 | Piano Concerto No. 1 | Samuel Barber |
| 1964 | no award | |
| 1965 | no award | |
| 1966 | Variations for Orchestra | Leslie Bassett |
| 1967 | Quartet No. 3 | Leon Kirchner |
| 1968 | Echoes of Time and the River (for orchestra) | George Crumb |
| 1969 | String Quartet No. 3 | Karel Husa |
| 1970 | Time's Encomium (electronic work) | Charles Wuorinen |
| 1971 | Synchronisms No. 6 for Piano and Electronic Sound | Mario Davidovsky |
| 1972 | Windows (for orchestra) | Jacob Druckman |
| 1973 | String Quartet No. 3 | Elliott Carter |
| 1974 | Notturno (for chamber ensemble) | Donald Martino |
| 1975 | From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (song cycle) | Dominick Argento |
| 1976 | Air Music (orchestral suite) | Ned Rorem |
| 1977 | Visions of Terror and Wonder (for mezzo soprano and orchestra) | Richard Wernick |
| 1978 | Deja Vu (for percussion and orchestra) | Michael Colgrass |
| 1979 | Aftertones of Infinity (for orchestra) | Joseph Schwantner |
| 1980 | In Memory of a Summer Day (for soprano and orchestra) | David Del Tredici |
| 1981 | no award | |
| 1982 | Concerto for Orchestra | Roger Sessions |
| 1983 | Symphony No. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra) | Ellen Taaffe Zwilich |
| 1984 | Canti del sole (for solo voices and orchestra) | Bernard Rands |
| 1985 | RiverRun (symphony) | Stephen Albert |
| 1986 | Wind Quintet IV | George Perle |
| 1987 | The Flight into Egypt (for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra) | John Harbison |
| 1988 | 12 New Etudes for Piano | William Bolcom |
| 1989 | Whispers out of Time (for string orchestra) | Roger Reynolds |
| 1990 | Duplicates: A Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra | Mel Powell |
| 1991 | Symphony | Shulamit Ran |
| 1992 | The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark (for orchestra) | Wayne Peterson |
| 1993 | Trombone Concerto | Christopher Rouse |
| 1994 | Of Reminiscences and Reflections (for orchestra) | Gunther Schuller |
| 1995 | Stringmusic (for orchestra) | Morton Gould |
| 1996 | Lilacs (for voice and orchestra) | George Walker |
| 1997 | Blood on the Fields (oratorio for jazz orchestra and voices) | Wynton Marsalis |
| 1998 | String Quartet No. 2 (Musica Instrumentalis) | Aaron Jay Kernis |
| 1999 | Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion | Melinda Wagner |
| 2000 | Life Is a Dream, Opera in Three Acts: Act II, Concert Version | Lewis Spratlan |
| 2001 | Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra | John Corigliano |
| 2002 | Ice Field (for orchestra) | Henry Brant |
| 2003 | On the Transmigration of Souls (for orchestra, chorus, children's choir, and pre-recorded sound track) | John Adams |
| 2004 | Tempest Fantasy (chamber music) | Paul Moravec |
| 2005 | Second Concerto for Orchestra | Steven Stucky |
| 2006 | Chiavi in mano (piano concerto) | Yehudi Wyner |
| 2007 | Sound Grammar (for jazz ensemble) | Ornette Coleman |
| 2008 | The Little Match Girl Passion (for chorus and percussion) | David Lang |
| 2009 | Double Sextet | Steve Reich |
| 2010 | Violin Concerto | Jennifer Higdon |
| 2011 | Madame White Snake | Zhou Long |
| 2012 | Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts | Kevin Puts |
| 2013 | Partita for 8 Voices | Caroline Shaw |
| 2014 | Become Ocean | John Luther Adams |
| 2015 | Anthracite Fields | Julia Wolfe |
| 2016 | In for a Penny, In for a Pound | Henry Threadgill |
| 2017 | Angel's Bone | Du Yun |
| 2018 | DAMN. | Kendrick Lamar |
| 2019 | p r i s m | Ellen Reid |
| 2020 | The Central Park Five | Anthony Davis |
| 2021 | Stride | Tania León |
| 2022 | Voiceless Mass | Raven Chacon |
| 2023 | Omar | Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels |
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry are listed in the table.
| year | title | author |
|---|---|---|
| *The 1918 and 1919 prizes were sponsored by Columbia University and the Poetry Society of America, as Joseph Pulitzer had made no provision for a poetry prize. The Pulitzer Board later formalized the prize. | ||
| **Awarded posthumously. | ||
| ***Work published and prize awarded posthumously. | ||
| 1918 | Love Songs* | Sara Teasdale |
| 1919 | Cornhuskers* | Carl Sandburg |
| The Old Road to Paradise | Margaret Widdemer | |
| 1920 | no award | |
| 1921 | no award | |
| 1922 | Collected Poems | Edwin Arlington Robinson |
| 1923 | The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver; A Few Figs from Thistles; "Eight Sonnets" in American Poetry, 1922: A Miscellany | Edna St. Vincent Millay |
| 1924 | New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes | Robert Frost |
| 1925 | The Man Who Died Twice |
|
| 1926 | What's O'Clock** | Amy Lowell |
| 1927 | Fiddler's Farewell | Leonora Speyer |
| 1928 | Tristram | Edwin Arlington Robinson |
| 1929 | John Brown's Body | Stephen Vincent Benét |
| 1930 | Selected Poems | Conrad Aiken |
| 1931 | Collected Poems of Robert Frost | Robert Frost |
| 1932 | The Flowering Stone | George Dillon |
| 1933 | Conquistador | Archibald MacLeish |
| 1934 | The Collected Verse of Robert Hillyer | Robert Hillyer |
| 1935 | Bright Ambush | Audrey Wurdemann |
| 1936 | Strange Holiness | Robert P. Tristram Coffin |
| 1937 | A Further Range | Robert Frost |
| 1938 | Cold Morning Sky | Marya Zaturenska |
| 1939 | Selected Poems | John Gould Fletcher |
| 1940 | Collected Poems | Mark Van Doren |
| 1941 |
|
Leonard Bacon |
| 1942 | The Dust Which Is God | William Rose Benét |
| 1943 | A Witness Tree | Robert Frost |
| 1944 | Western Star** | Stephen Vincent Benét |
| 1945 | V-Letter and Other Poems | Karl Shapiro |
| 1946 | no award | |
| 1947 | Lord Weary's Castle | Robert Lowell |
| 1948 | The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue | W.H. Auden |
| 1949 |
|
Peter Viereck |
| 1950 | Annie Allen | Gwendolyn Brooks |
| 1951 | Complete Poems | Carl Sandburg |
| 1952 | Collected Poems | Marianne Moore |
| 1953 | Collected Poems, 1917–1952 | Archibald MacLeish |
| 1954 | The Waking: Poems, 1933–1953 | Theodore Roethke |
| 1955 | The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens | Wallace Stevens |
| 1956 | Poems: North & South–A Cold Spring | Elizabeth Bishop |
| 1957 | Things of This World | Richard Wilbur |
| 1958 | Promises: Poems 1954–1956 | Robert Penn Warren |
| 1959 | Selected Poems, 1928–1958 | Stanley Kunitz |
| 1960 | Heart's Needle | W.D. Snodgrass |
| 1961 | Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades with Seventy New Poems | Phyllis McGinley |
| 1962 | Poems | Alan Dugan |
| 1963 | Pictures from Breughel and Other Poems: Collected Poems, 1950–1962 | William Carlos Williams |
| 1964 | At the End of the Open Road | Louis Simpson |
| 1965 | 77 Dream Songs | John Berryman |
| 1966 | Selected Poems, 1930–1965 | Richard Eberhart |
| 1967 | Live or Die | Anne Sexton |
| 1968 | The Hard Hours | Anthony Hecht |
| 1969 | Of Being Numerous | George Oppen |
| 1970 | Untitled Subjects | Richard Howard |
| 1971 | The Carrier of Ladders | W.S. Merwin |
| 1972 | Collected Poems | James Wright |
| 1973 | Up Country: Poems of New England, New and Selected | Maxine Kumin |
| 1974 | The Dolphin | Robert Lowell |
| 1975 | Turtle Island | Gary Snyder |
| 1976 | Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror | John Ashbery |
| 1977 | Divine Comedies | James Merrill |
| 1978 |
|
Howard Nemerov |
| 1979 | Now and Then: Poems, 1976–1978 | Robert Penn Warren |
| 1980 | Selected Poems | Donald Justice |
| 1981 | The Morning of the Poem | James Schuyler |
| 1982 | The Collected Poems*** | Sylvia Plath |
| 1983 | Selected Poems | Galway Kinnell |
| 1984 | American Primitive | Mary Oliver |
| 1985 | Yin: New Poems | Carolyn Kizer |
| 1986 | The Flying Change | Henry Taylor |
| 1987 | Thomas and Beulah | Rita Dove |
| 1988 | Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems | William Meredith |
| 1989 | New and Collected Poems | Richard Wilbur |
| 1990 | The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems | Charles Simic |
| 1991 | Near Changes | Mona Van Duyn |
| 1992 | Selected Poems | James Tate |
| 1993 | The Wild Iris | Louise Glück |
| 1994 | Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems | Yusef Komunyakaa |
| 1995 | The Simple Truth | Philip Levine |
| 1996 | The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems, 1974–1994 | Jorie Graham |
| 1997 | Alive Together: New and Selected Poems | Lisel Mueller |
| 1998 | Black Zodiac | Charles Wright |
| 1999 | Blizzard of One | Mark Strand |
| 2000 | Repair | C.K. Williams |
| 2001 | Different Hours | Stephen Dunn |
| 2002 | Practical Gods | Carl Dennis |
| 2003 | Moy Sand and Gravel | Paul Muldoon |
| 2004 | Walking to Martha's Vineyard | Franz Wright |
| 2005 | Delights & Shadows | Ted Kooser |
| 2006 | Late Wife | Claudia Emerson |
| 2007 | Native Guard | Natasha Trethewey |
| 2008 | Time and Materials: Poems, 1997–2005 | Robert Hass |
| Failure | Philip Schultz | |
| 2009 | The Shadow of Sirius | W.S. Merwin |
| 2010 | Versed | Rae Armantrout |
| 2011 | The Best of It: New and Selected Poems | Kay Ryan |
| 2012 | Life on Mars | Tracy K. Smith |
| 2013 | Stag's Leap | Sharon Olds |
| 2014 | 3 Sections | Vijay Seshadri |
| 2015 | Digest | Gregory Pardlo |
| 2016 | Ozone Journal | Peter Balakian |
| 2017 | Olio | Tyehimba Jess |
| 2018 | Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 | Frank Bidart |
| 2019 | Be With | Forrest Gander |
| 2020 | The Tradition | Jericho Brown |
| 2021 | Postcolonial Love Poem | Natalie Diaz |
| 2022 | frank: sonnets | Diane Seuss |
| 2023 | Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007–2020 | Carl Phillips |