For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, three thousand dollars ($3,000).

Awarded to The Simple Truth by Philip Levine (Alfred A. Knopf)

Mark Levine, son of Philip Levine, accepts the Pulitzer Prize from George Rupp, Columbia University President, on behalf of his father.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992" by Allen Ginsberg (HarperCollins), and "On The Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988" and "One Train" by Kenneth Koch (Alfred A. Knopf).