Living Canon

Pulitzer Prizes 2019: Complete list of winners

The Pulitzer Prizes for 2019 delivered a striking mix of ambitious, sweeping narratives and bold formal experimentation across every category. Richard Powers claimed Fiction for The Overstory, an expansive novel that weaves together multiple narratives around environmental destruction and activism—a testament to the award’s embrace of genre-bending literary work. Meanwhile, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview made waves in Drama with its meta-theatrical exploration of race and performance, signaling the Pulitzers’ continued investment in innovative stage work that challenges audiences.

The year’s nonfiction and biography winners showcased a deep engagement with American history and identity. David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom won History, offering a sweeping portrait of the abolitionist’s life and legacy, while Jeffrey C. Stewart’s The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke claimed Biography with its examination of the Harlem Renaissance intellectual. Eliza Griswold’s Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America brought urgency to General Nonfiction through its investigation of environmental damage and community conflict in Pennsylvania’s gas country. Poet Forrest Gander rounded out the winners with Be With, a collection that continued his exploration of language and translation.

This year’s Pulitzer Prize selections revealed a body of work deeply concerned with American fracture and reinvention—from environmental collapse to historical reckoning. Below, you’ll find the complete list of 2019 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists across all categories.

Biography

Drama

Fiction

General Nonfiction

History

Poetry