The 2023 Pulitzer Prize competition for Books is now open, and includes a new category for a distinguished memoir or autobiography by an American author.
The Pulitzer Prizes for books are awarded to work in Fiction, U.S. History, Biography, Memoir or Autobiography, Poetry and Nonfiction.
Previously, memoirs and autobiographies were submitted and judged in the Biography category. Many have been finalists in the category and have won the Prize, including, most recently, the 2022 Biography winner, “Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South,” by the late Winfred Rembert as told to Erin I. Kelly.
“Memoirs and autobiographies are flourishing,” said Marjorie Miller, Administrator of the Prizes. “After years of considering them alongside distinguished biographies and other nonfiction, and, at the urging of some nominating jurors, the Pulitzer Board felt it was time for each genre to have its own prize category.”
The new Pulitzer Prize category will be for a distinguished and factual memoir or autobiography by an American author.
First awarded in 1917, Biography is one of the original Pulitzer Prize categories. It will now be awarded for a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author.
For the 2023 book competition, the criteria for entry in all categories remain the same: To be eligible, books must be first published in the United States during calendar year 2022, and made available in hardcover or bound paperback for purchase by the general public. Authors in all categories except U.S. History must be American citizens.
All books must be submitted electronically as PDF e-books. There is a $75 handling fee for each entry.
Each book prize is accompanied by a cash award of $15,000.
The recommended entry deadline for books published in the first half of 2022 is Wednesday, July 20, 2022. The final deadline for all eligible books published in 2022, including those slated for publication in the final quarter of the year, is Monday, October 17, 2022.
Complete entry information, including rules and instructions, may be found on the How to Enter page of Pulitzer.org. After creating a new account or accessing a preexisting account, the entry form for books is available at bdmentrysite.pulitzer.org.