FAQ

The Pulitzer Prizes site contains the complete list of Pulitzer Prize winners from 1917 (the first year the Prizes were awarded) to the present. The site also lists Nominated Finalists from 1980 (the first year finalists were announced) through the present.

The Pulitzer site also contains the full text of winning entries in the Journalism categories from 1995 through the present, and selected material from winners in the Letters, Drama and Music and Special Awards and Citations categories. Also included are biographies of winners from 1995 through the present and information on Board members and Nominating Jurors.

In addition to this searchable content, the site provides entry forms for the upcoming prizes, photos, press releases and contact information for the Pulitzer Prizes office.

The site is best viewed using Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, Firefox 2.0 or later, Opera 8 or later, and Safari 3.

If the timeline does not work, use the Go to year box in the left (blue) column.

Before 1948, the Fiction category was called Novel. Try searching for Novel.

Either visit our How to Enter page (you must use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this material) or contact The Pulitzer Prize office via e-mail, regular mail, fax or phone to request forms and information.

Only U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for the Prizes in Letters, Drama and Music (with the exception of the History category in Letters where the book must be a history of the United States but the author may be of any nationality). For the Journalism competition, entrants may be of any nationality but work must have appeared in a U.S. newspaper published at least once a week, on a newspaper's Web site or on an online news organization's Web site. (Please also see FAQ #10)

There are no set criteria for the judging of the Prizes. The definitions of each category (see How to Enter or Administration page) are the only guidelines. It is left up to the Nominating Juries and The Pulitzer Prize Board to determine exactly what makes a work "distinguished."

Check this link to the Administration page.

Check this link to the Administration page.

Check this link to the Administration page.

Entries for journalism awards must be based on material coming from a text-based United States newspaper or online news site that publishes at least weekly during the calendar year and that adheres to the highest journalistic principles. Magazines and broadcast media, and their respective Web sites, are not eligible. Read the eligibility announcement of December 2009.

We accept entries made on behalf of authors who are deceased.

These photographs become part of our press packet if the entrant is selected as a Pulitzer Prize winner. Please make sure the photograph is of high enough quality to duplicate (i.e., not a photocopy).

The Pulitzer Prize office does not retain rights to Pulitzer Prizewinning photographs. To get a copy of a photo, you must either contact the newspaper or the photographer directly. There are a few books containing Pulitzer Prize photos: Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs edited by Hal Buell (1999: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing); Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs edited by Sheryle and John Leekley (New York: Crown Publishers, 1982) and the catalog for "Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs" exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Corbis Photos owns the rights to this photograph.

ZUMA Press exclusively represents the rights to this photograph.

Photocopies of winning articles from before 1995 are available from Columbia University's Journalism Library for a fee.

They are available on the St. Petersburg Times Website.

Please see our Biography page for a biography of Joseph Pulitzer.

Gwendolyn Brooks was awarded the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for "Annie Allen."

According to The Plan of Award "If in any year all the competitors in any category shall fall below the standard of excellence fixed by The Pulitzer Prize Board, the amount of such prize or prizes may be withheld."

The medal was designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French.

John F. Kennedy was awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his book "Profiles in Courage".

• A Pulitzer Prize Winner may be an individual, a group of individuals, or a newspaper's staff.
• Nominated Finalists are selected by the Nominating Juries for each category as finalists in the competition. The Pulitzer Prize Board generally selects the Pulitzer Prize Winners from the three nominated finalists in each category. The names of nominated finalists have been announced only since 1980. Work that has been submitted for Prize consideration but not chosen as either a nominated finalist or a winner is termed an entry or submission. No information on entrants is provided.
• Since 1980, when we began to announce nominated finalists, we have used the term "nominee" for entrants who became finalists. We discourage someone saying he or she was "nominated" for a Pulitzer simply because an entry was sent to us.
• The Public Service prize is always awarded to a newspaper, not an individual, although an individual may be named in the citation.
• The Pulitzer Prize Board may elect to bestow No Award in a category in any given year.
• On rare occasions The Pulitzer Prize Board will award a Special Award or Citation to a work or an individual of particular merit.

The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded at a luncheon in late May, about a month after the names of the winners have been announced. The luncheon takes place at Low Library on the Columbia University campus.

No, there is no logo for The Pulitzer Prize.

The Nobel Prizes are in no way affiliated with The Pulitzer Prizes. Please check the Nobel Prize Web Site for information.

The correct pronunciation is "PULL it  sir."

Please see our Contact page for contact information.