What it's like to win a Pulitzer

Fiction winners see the most financial gain

The Pulitzer Prize brings prestige, but inconsistent financial benefits. For nonfiction writers, receiving the award does increase sales, but only modestly. The big winners are the fiction writers, some of whom have seen sales double after a win.

Winning Pulitzers doesn't attract readers to newspapers

A 2014 study by Nate Silver found that newspapers that win the awards rarely see a change in circulation. While plenty has changed in the media landscape since the article was published in 2014, it's still a fascinating peek into how prestigious awards affect (or, more accurately, don't affect) readership.

The full list of every Pulitzer Prize winner

Since its inception in 1917, over 2,000 Pulitzers have been awarded to writers published in the US, from poetry and fiction to investigative reporting and history books. You can explore the winners by decade and year here, or click the view to see winners by category, including those no longer used.

The Pulitzer's evolving categories mirror the state of contemporary journalism

The inaugural prizes in 1917 selected four winners: two for newspaper journalism (including a look inside the German Empire amid World War I) and two for books, but the slate has evolved to include online-only outlets (2009), magazines (2015), and audio reporting (2020). The 2024 Pulitzers, in particular, marked a noticeable shift: More digital outlets were awarded than traditional newspapers, illustrating a sharp decline in local newspapers and a rise in digital outlets.

The Pulitzer Prize has had its fair share of controversies

From fabricated articles to fiction that inspired FBI surveillance, these are five of the most controversial moments in Pulitzer Prize history. Among them: the Pulitzer Board’s decision not to give novelist Sinclair Lewis the 1921 award for fiction. This snub led the author of “Main Street” to become the first Pulitzer recipient to reject the prize in 1926.

Women work harder for Pulitzers

While the Pulitzers have never been segregated by gender, a 2012 study by the University of Missouri found female winners required significantly more elite credentials—Ivy League degrees, experience at top newspapers, and the like—than their male counterparts. Similar credentials are also overrepresented in the category of international reporting, suggesting the award favors those with more privileged upbringings.

The Pulitzer Prize for photography has gone to the photographers who took some of history's defining images

The prestigious literary awards also include two prizes for photography: one for features and another for breaking news. Recipients have captured some of history’s most famous photos, including the iconic photo of US Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima (by Joseph Rosenthal) and the legendary photo of Babe Ruth on the day of his final game (by Nat Fein).

Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN." was the first hip-hop album to win a Pulitzer

Kendrick Lamar’s 2017 Pulitzer win for his album "DAMN." made history as the first hip-hop artist ever to receive the award. The Pulitzer Prize for Music is usually awarded to classical and jazz compositions, making Lamar's win even more unexpected.

Reporting on the Santa Cruz storms

The Pulitzer on the Road podcast interviews prizewinners for insights on their work and takes a deep dive into issues relevant to the awards. This episode focuses on Lookout Santa Cruz, a digital California-based outlet that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for its coverage of the devastating storms the region faced in early 2023. Lookout’s reporters discuss the importance of local news coverage.

Pulitzer left $2M to Columbia to establish the Pulitzer Prize

The man who transformed the New York World into the largest newspaper in America in the late 1800s left his home country of Hungary in 1864 to fight in the US Civil War. When he died in 1911, Pulitzer left $2M to Columbia University to found its journalism school and establish the Pulitzer Prize.

Pulitzer's newspapers were intended for the masses

His newspapers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World, transformed journalism by marketing to a mass audience rather than just the elite.

The Washington Post's Janet Cooke returned her Pulitzer

When Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke published her profile of a 8-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy in 1980, it created an instant uproar. Social workers, police officers, and even the mayor of Washington, DC all jumped into action to try to get the child help, but no one could find him. Within hours of Cooke receiving a Pulitzer for the piece, everything began to unravel as it was revealed that she had fabricated not just Jimmy's story, but her own as well. She eventually returned the award.

Winning a James Beard Award can have mixed effects

Winning the honor doesn't mean a restaurant will be set for the future. Most found that while winning gave an initial bump in the number of reservations, that pattern didn’t necessarily hold for long enough to make a real difference in the numbers.

Watch writer John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

When the reclusive Thomas Pynchon won the National Book Award, he sent a stand-up comedian to receive the honor

Pynchon's novel "Gravity's Rainbow" won the National Book Award in 1974 (sharing the distinction with Isaac Bashevis Singer's "A Crown of Feathers"), but the writer, who was seldom seen in public, sent the comic "Professor" Irwin Corey in his place. You can read the ridiculously satirical speech, which would be at home in one of Pynchon's novels, in full by clicking through below.

Winning (or losing) a Grammy can impact the music an artist makes

A group of sociologists wanted to understand the impact the Grammys have on artists' musical output. They discovered that winning a Grammy often emboldens artists to release music that deviates from their own previous work and others. Nominees who lose do the opposite and trend toward the mainstream.

Actors on 'All the President's Men' immersed themselves in real-world reporting

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford spent months shadowing the real Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward—working at The Washington Post, living with Bernstein's family, and studying their mannerisms—to bring authentic nuance to their portrayals of Watergate's investigative journalists.

Tom Wolfe wrote a humorous account of the birth of New Journalism

Wolfe explains the style came from journalists attempting to make fact-based reporting read like a novel, arguing that traditional reporting left readers “bored to tears.” Instead of emphasizing an objective point of view, Wolfe favored detailed descriptions that established complex characters, painted interesting scenes, and shared dialogue.

The Tony is the 'T' in EGOT

For a small number of incredibly talented people, an EGOT—winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony—is a career goal. The original EGOT-er was Richard Rodgers, who also won a Pulitzer. There are plenty of familiar names along the way, including Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jennifer Hudson.

Experience games that explore Nobel Prize-winning work

Inspired by the educators who set laureates on their path, the Nobel Foundation has created a library of interactive activities for the general public. These allow users to make groundbreaking discoveries, showing that such work is accessible to all.

Cannes Lions winners, after the awards

Rather than focusing on the brands or agencies behind winning campaigns, this list highlights the people who earned Cannes Lions. It’s a fascinating look at what wins awards and what those awards can do for the recipients.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

A quote by athlete Walter Payton

"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."

'The Father of Positive Psychology' gives tips on building resilience

People differ in how they respond to setbacks. Famed psychologist Martin Seligman outlines three key pillars for resilience: developing mental toughness by interpreting failures as external and temporary, recognizing and using one’s signature strengths, and cultivating strong relationships that offer support and meaning.

How Kurt Cobain's suicide changed the media

Public health experts feared that the suicide of a high-profile figure, especially for young people, would lead to a rise in suicides across the country. The opposite turned out to be true: Suicide rates decreased. Specialists suggest that's due to the way Cobain's death was covered, with news organizations largely avoiding glorification and including crisis hotline information.

Thoughts from an anonymous Michelin inspector

An anonymous Michelin inspector answers the most common questions about their job and explains how reviewing and awarding stars works. Covering everything from how they decide what to order to advice for young chefs, get a peek into the details of one of the most influential restaurant reviewing jobs.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.