2024 Pulitzer Prize For Fiction To Jayne Anne Phillips' Night Watch

The Pulitzer Prize Board assembled for two days in the Pulitzer World Room of the Columbia Journalism School. In prior weeks, the Board had read the texts of the journalism entries and the 18 nominated books, listened to music recordings, read the scripts of the nominated plays, and attended the performances or seen videos where possible. And on May 6 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists have been announced.

In the category of fiction where the Prize is awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips has triumphed leaving behind its fellow finalists Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park and Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li.

Night Watch is a beautifully rendered novel set in West Virginia’s Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in the aftermath of the Civil War where a severely wounded Union veteran, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, long abused by a Confederate soldier, struggle to heal.

See the full list of Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists here.

Last year the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was handed to Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Trust by Hernan Diaz.

Source: 2024 press release, pulitzer.org