Every Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 1918–2026

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has gone to 100 books since 1918; in 2023 the prize was shared, and in 10 years it was not given at all. The latest winner is Angel Down by Daniel Kraus (2026). The most readable is A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (difficulty 33/100, about 4.5 hours); the hardest is The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (76/100). The quickest to finish is The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, at about 1.7 hours.

How book difficulty is measured

2026

• Angel Down by Daniel Kraus — difficulty 41/100, about 5.7 hours
• Audition by Katie Kitamura — finalist
• Stag Dance: A Quartet by Torrey Peters — finalist

2025

• James by Percival Everett — difficulty 51/100, about 4.5 hours
• Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel — finalist
• Mice 1961 by Stacey Levine — finalist
• The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones — finalist

2024

• Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips — difficulty 64/100, about 8 hours
• Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park — finalist
• Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li — finalist

2023

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver — difficulty 39/100, about 12 hours, joint winner
• Trust by Hernan Diaz — difficulty 62/100, about 8 hours, joint winner
• The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara — finalist

2022

• The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen — difficulty 54/100, about 4.2 hours
• Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman — finalist
• Palmares by Gayl Jones — finalist

2021

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich — difficulty 44/100, about 7.4 hours
• A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth by Daniel Mason — finalist
• Telephone by Percival Everett — finalist

2020

• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead — difficulty 71/100, about 6.3 hours
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett — finalist
• The Topeka School by Ben Lerner — finalist

2019

• The Overstory by Richard Powers — difficulty 57/100, about 13 hours
• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai — finalist
• There There by Tommy Orange — finalist

2018

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer — difficulty 54/100, about 4.9 hours
• In the Distance by Hernan Diaz — finalist
• The Idiot by Elif Batuman — finalist

2017

• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead — difficulty 65/100, about 8.1 hours
• Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett — finalist
• The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan — finalist

2016

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen — difficulty 48/100, about 9.1 hours
• Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link — finalist
• Maud's Line by Margaret Verble — finalist

2015

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr — difficulty 69/100, about 13 hours
• Let Me Be Frank with You by Richard Ford — finalist
• Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates — finalist
• The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami — finalist

2014

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt — difficulty 56/100, about 21 hours
• The Son by Philipp Meyer — finalist
• The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis — finalist

2013

• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson — difficulty 61/100, about 14 hours
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey — finalist
• What We Talk About When We Talk about Anne Frank by Nathan Englander — finalist

2012

• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell — finalist
• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace — finalist
• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson — finalist

2011

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan — difficulty 46/100, about 5.1 hours
• The Privileges by Jonathan Dee — finalist
• The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee — finalist

2010

• Tinkers by Paul Harding — difficulty 62/100, about 4.1 hours
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin — finalist
• Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet — finalist

2009

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout — difficulty 62/100, about 8 hours
• All Souls by Christine Schutt — finalist
• The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich — finalist

2008

• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz — difficulty 52/100, about 6.4 hours
• Shakespeare's Kitchen by Lore Segal — finalist
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson — finalist

2007

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy — difficulty 63/100, about 5.2 hours
• After This by Alice McDermott — finalist
• The Echo Maker by Richard Powers — finalist

2006

• March by Geraldine Brooks — difficulty 71/100, about 11 hours
• The Bright Forever by Lee Martin — finalist
• The March by E. L. Doctorow — finalist

2005

• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson — difficulty 54/100, about 6 hours
• An Unfinished Season by Ward Just — finalist
• War Trash by Ha Jin — finalist

2004

• The Known World by Edward P. Jones — difficulty 58/100, about 11 hours
• American Woman by Susan Choi — finalist
• Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins — finalist

2003

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides — difficulty 57/100, about 15 hours
• Servants of the Map: Stories by Andrea Barrett — finalist
• You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett — finalist

2002

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo — difficulty 63/100, about 17 hours
• John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead — finalist
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen — finalist

2001

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon — difficulty 49/100, about 16 hours
• Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates — finalist
• The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams — finalist

2000

• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri — difficulty 50/100, about 4.1 hours
• Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx — finalist
• Waiting by Ha Jin — finalist

1999

• The Hours by Michael Cunningham — difficulty 66/100, about 5.1 hours
• Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks — finalist
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver — finalist

1998

• American Pastoral by Philip Roth — difficulty 55/100, about 11 hours
• Bear and His Daughter: Stories by Robert Stone — finalist
• Underworld by Don DeLillo — finalist

1997

• Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser — difficulty 54/100, about 5.2 hours
• The Manikin by Joanna Scott — finalist
• Unlocking the Air and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin — finalist

1996

• Independence Day by Richard Ford — difficulty 49/100, about 12 hours
• Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos — finalist
• Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth — finalist

1995

• The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields — difficulty 76/100, about 12 hours
• The Collected Stories by Grace Paley — finalist
• What I Lived For by Joyce Carol Oates — finalist

1994

• The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx — difficulty 56/100, about 8 hours
• Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth — finalist
• The Collected Stories by Reynolds Price — finalist

1993

• A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler — difficulty 43/100, about 4.2 hours
• At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott — finalist
• Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates — finalist

1992

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley — difficulty 47/100, about 8.5 hours
• Jernigan by David Gates — finalist
• Lila: An Inquiry into Morals by Robert M. Pirsig — finalist
• Mao II by Don DeLillo — finalist

1991

• Rabbit at Rest by John Updike — difficulty 58/100, about 14 hours
• Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan — finalist
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien — finalist

1990

• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos — difficulty 71/100, about 17 hours
• Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow — finalist

1989

• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler — difficulty 51/100, about 6.8 hours
• Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver — finalist

1988

• Beloved by Toni Morrison — difficulty 58/100, about 7.5 hours
• Persian Nights by Diane Johnson — finalist
• That Night by Alice McDermott — finalist

1987

• A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor — difficulty 47/100, about 3.7 hours
• Paradise by Donald Barthelme — finalist
• Whites by Norman Rush — finalist

1986

• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry — difficulty 51/100, about 23 hours
• Continental Drift by Russell Banks — finalist
• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler — finalist

1985

• Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie — difficulty 51/100, about 4.9 hours
• I Wish This War Were Over by Diana O'Hehir — finalist
• Leaving the Land by Douglas Unger — finalist

1984

• Ironweed by William Kennedy — difficulty 57/100, about 5.1 hours
• Cathedral by Raymond Carver — finalist
• The Feud by Thomas Berger — finalist

1983

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker — difficulty 49/100, about 4.6 hours
• Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler — finalist
• Rabbis and Wives by Chaim Grade — finalist

1982

• Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike — difficulty 57/100, about 13 hours
• A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone — finalist
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson — finalist

1981

• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole — difficulty 73/100, about 15 hours, awarded posthumously
• Godric by Frederick Buechner — finalist
• So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell — finalist

1980

• The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer — difficulty 55/100, about 26 hours
• Birdy by William Wharton — finalist
• The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth — finalist

1979

• The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever — difficulty 61/100, about 28 hours

1978

• Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson — difficulty 53/100, about 4.6 hours

1976

• Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow — difficulty 60/100, about 15 hours

1975

• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara — difficulty 53/100, about 7.7 hours

1973

• The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty — difficulty 55/100, about 2.8 hours

1972

• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner — difficulty 52/100, about 14 hours

1970

• Collected Stories by Jean Stafford

1969

• House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday — difficulty 61/100, about 5.6 hours

1968

• The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron — difficulty 56/100, about 11 hours

1967

• The Fixer by Bernard Malamud — difficulty 55/100, about 7.4 hours

1966

• The Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter

1965

• The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau — difficulty 73/100, about 12 hours

1963

• The Reivers by William Faulkner — difficulty 53/100, about 6.6 hours, awarded posthumously

1962

• The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor — difficulty 53/100, about 8 hours

1961

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — difficulty 42/100, about 6.3 hours

1960

• Advise and Consent by Allen Drury — difficulty 56/100, about 22 hours

1959

• The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor — difficulty 54/100, about 13 hours

1958

• A Death in the Family by James Agee — difficulty 45/100, about 6.5 hours, awarded posthumously

1956

• Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor — difficulty 46/100, about 12 hours

1955

• A Fable by William Faulkner — difficulty 75/100, about 20 hours

1953

• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway — difficulty 42/100, about 1.7 hours

1952

• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk — difficulty 58/100, about 16 hours

1951

• The Town by Conrad Richter — difficulty 33/100, about 4.5 hours

1950

• The Way West by A. B. Guthrie — difficulty 53/100, about 6.2 hours

1949

• Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens — difficulty 69/100, about 24 hours

1948

• Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener — difficulty 51/100, about 9.9 hours

1947

• All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren — difficulty 54/100, about 15 hours

1945

• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey — difficulty 33/100, about 4.5 hours

1944

• Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin — difficulty 41/100, about 7.9 hours

1943

• Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair — difficulty 37/100, about 7.7 hours

1942

• In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow — difficulty 70/100, about 14 hours

1940

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck — difficulty 55/100, about 13 hours

1939

• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings — difficulty 39/100, about 7.9 hours

1938

• The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand — difficulty 52/100, about 6 hours

1937

• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell — difficulty 45/100, about 27 hours

1936

• Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis — difficulty 41/100, about 9.9 hours

1935

• Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson — difficulty 48/100, about 3.4 hours

1934

• Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller — difficulty 38/100, about 5.4 hours

1933

• The Store by T. S. Stribling — difficulty 63/100, about 15 hours

1932

• The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck — difficulty 50/100, about 7.2 hours

1931

• Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes — difficulty 43/100, about 11 hours

1930

• Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge — difficulty 41/100, about 3 hours

1929

• Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin — difficulty 35/100, about 4.1 hours

1928

• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder — difficulty 54/100, about 2.3 hours

1927

• Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield — difficulty 43/100, about 6.3 hours

1926

• Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis — difficulty 45/100, about 11 hours

1925

• So Big by Edna Ferber — difficulty 41/100, about 5 hours

1924

• The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson — difficulty 37/100, about 3.7 hours

1923

• One of Ours by Willa Cather — difficulty 46/100, about 8.2 hours

1922

• Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington — difficulty 41/100, about 5.2 hours

1921

• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton — difficulty 54/100, about 7.1 hours

1919

• The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington — difficulty 48/100, about 6.6 hours

1918

• His Family by Ernest Poole — difficulty 40/100, about 5.9 hours

Questions

Who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2026?

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus.

Which Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner should I read first?

For the gentlest start, A Bell for Adano by John Hersey: the easiest of the winners to read, with a difficulty of 33/100 and about 4.5 hours of reading. For the quickest, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, about 1.7 hours.

Which Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner is the hardest to read?

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, with a difficulty of 76/100; it takes about 12 hours.

Who has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once?

Booth Tarkington (1919 and 1922), William Faulkner (1955 and 1963), John Updike (1982 and 1991) and Colson Whitehead (2017 and 2020).

How long would it take to read every Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner?

About 944 hours at an average reading pace, for the 98 winners with a measured length.

In which years was the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction not awarded?

1920, 1941, 1946, 1954, 1957, 1964, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 2012.

Winners from Wikipedia, checked 2026-10-30.

Other prizes: Nobel Prize in Literature, Booker Prize, International Booker Prize, National Book Award for Fiction, Women's Prize for Fiction, Hugo Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award for Best Novel, Prix Goncourt, Dublin Literary Award, PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, National Book Award for Nonfiction, Costa Novel Award, Albert J. Beveridge Award, Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction. Every literary prize; every winner of 2026.