For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Five thousand dollars ($5,000).

Awarded to Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)

Columbia University President George Rupp presents Jhumpa Lahiri with The 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Waiting" by Ha Jin (Pantheon Books), and "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" by Annie Proulx (Scribner).