For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, three thousand dollars ($3,000).

Awarded to The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)

Carol Shields receives the Pulitzer Prize from Columbia University President George Rupp.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "What I Lived For" by Joyce Carol Oates (Dutton), and "The Collected Stories" by Grace Paley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).