20 years of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Fiction | BOOK CLUB CLASSICS!

20 years of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Fiction

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Kristen

In honor of the upcoming 2009 Pulitzer announcement, this week’s list presents the past 20 winners of the prize. I tend to love Pulitzer winners, and have even created discussion questions for a number of past winners. Tomorrow I will be asking everyone to predict this year’s winner (announced on April 20th)…

Here is the criteria for winning the Pulitzer in fiction:

“For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. “

Curious about what the Pulitzer judges deem “distinguished”? Here’s the list (I have starred those titles I have read):

**2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

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**2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)

**2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

**2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)

2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins) (50 page rule victim)

**2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

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2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)

**2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)

**2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)

**1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

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1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)

1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)

1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)

**1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner’s Sons)

1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)

1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)

1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)

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1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)

**1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)

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**1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)

Now, except for The Known World, I have truly loved every single one of the other winners I have read so far…

What about you? Any favorites or duds, in your opinion?

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About Kristen

I have been a high school teacher for 15 years and am ready to embark on a new project! I hope to promote classic literature and help book clubs rediscover these gems.

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