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The 2010 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction
For distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Tinkers, by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)

A powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality.
Lee Bollinger and Paul Harding

Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University (left), presents the 2010 Fiction prize to Paul Harding.

Winning Work

Tinkers

By

Paul Harding

An old man lies dying. As time collapses into memory, he travels deep into his past where he is reunited with his father and relives the wonder and pain of his impoverished New England youth.

At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature.

— from the publisher

Biography

Paul Harding has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught writing at Harvard and the University of Iowa. He lives near Boston with his wife and two sons. This is his first novel.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Fiction in 2010:

Daniyal Mueenuddin

A collection of beautifully crafted stories that exposes the Western reader to the hopes, dreams and dramas of an array of characters in feudal Pakistan, resulting in both an aesthetic and cultural achievement.

Lydia Millet

An imaginative collection of linked stories, often describing a memorable encounter between a famous person and an animal, underscoring the human folly of longing for significance while chasing trifles.

The Jury

Rebecca Pepper Sinkler(chair )

former editor

Charles Johnson

professor emeritus

Laura Miller

senior writer

Winners in Fiction

2009

Elizabeth Strout

A collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating.
See All Fiction

2010 Prize Winners

Special Citations and Awards

Hank Williams

For his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.
History

Liaquat Ahamed

A compelling account of how four powerful bankers played crucial roles in triggering the Great Depression and ultimately transforming the United States into the world's financial leader.
Poetry

Rae Armantrout

A book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading.
Biography

T.J. Stiles

A penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan who revolutionized transportation, amassed vast wealth and shaped the economic world in ways still felt today.
See All 2010 Winners