Pulitzer Prize Winning Books by Black Writers (includes Finalists)

Pulitzer Prize Medal

Since 1917 the Pulitzer Prize has honored excellence in journalism and the arts. The first award was presented in 1918. The Prize recognizes American authors in six “Letters and Drama” categories; Biography/Autobiography, Fiction, General Non-Fiction, History, Poetry, and Drama (technically not a book award, but plays are all available as books and have been included here).

The first African-American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize in any of the above categories was Gwendolyn Brooks who received the award for poetry for her collection Annie Allen in 1950.


3 Books were Finalists or Winners of Pulitzer Prizes in 2015

Winner - Poetry

Digest (Stahlecker Selections)
by Gregory Pardlo

Publication Date: Oct 07, 2014
List Price: $15.95
Format: Paperback, 84 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781935536505
Imprint: Four Way Books
Publisher: Four Way Books
Parent Company: Four Way Books

Book Description: 
From Epicurus to Sam Cooke, the Daily News to Roots, Digest draws from the present and the past to form an intellectual, American identity. In poems that forge their own styles and strategies, we experience dialogues between the written word and other art forms. Within this dialogue we hear Ben Jonson, we meet police K-9s, and we find children negotiating a sense of the world through a father’s eyes and through their own.

Winner - Drama

Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
by Suzan-Lori Parks

    Publication Date: Jun 23, 2015
    List Price: $14.95
    Format: Paperback, 192 pages
    Classification: Fiction
    ISBN13: 9781559365000
    Imprint: Theatre Communications Group
    Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
    Parent Company: Theatre Communications Group

    Book Description: Finalist, 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama “The finest work yet from this gifted writer.”The New York TimesOffered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and pe



    Finalist - Fiction

    The Moor’s Account
    by Laila Lalami

    Publication Date: Aug 18, 2015
    List Price: $15.95
    Format: Paperback, 336 pages
    Classification: Nonfiction
    ISBN13: 9780804170628
    Imprint: Vintage Books
    Publisher: Penguin Random House
    Parent Company: Bertelsmann

    Book Description: 
    **PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST**
    **NOMINATED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE**
    **WINNER OF THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARD**

    A New York Times Notable Book
    A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of the Year
    An NPR Great Read of 2014
    A Kirkus Best Fiction Book of the Year

    In these pages, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America: Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. The slave of a Spanish conquistador, Estebanico sails for the Americas with his master, Dorantes, as part of a danger-laden expedition to Florida. Within a year, Estebanico is one of only four crew members to survive.
    As he journeys across America with his Spanish companions, the Old World roles of slave and master fall away, and Estebanico remakes himself as an equal, a healer, and a remarkable storyteller. His tale illuminates the ways in which our narratives can transmigrate into history—and how storytelling can offer a chance at redemption and survival.