The Pulitzer Prize Board has announced that it will expand eligibility for its awards in books, drama, and music to include non-U.S. citizens.
The board announced its decision in a statement on its website, saying the prizes will now be open to “permanent residents of the United States and those who have made the United States their longtime primary home.”
The move comes weeks after authors petitioned the board to make the change, inspired by a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Javier Zamora, the poet and author of the memoir Solito. In his essay, Zamora wrote, “It makes no good sense that seemingly liberal organizations like the Pulitzer Foundation that frequently celebrate writers and artists whose works expose injustice, would simultaneously be perpetuating the kind of exclusionary xenophobia immigrants experience daily.”
Previously, the Pulitzer Prizes for fiction, biography, memoir, poetry, general nonfiction, drama, and music were only open to American citizens. The new eligibility rules go into effect for the 2025 awards cycle.
“The Board is enthusiastic about ensuring that the Prizes are inclusive and accessible to those producing distinguished work in Books, Drama and Music,” board co-chairs Tommie Shelby and Neil Brown said in a statement. “This expansion of eligibility is an appropriate update of our rules and compatible with the goals Joseph Pulitzer had in establishing these awards.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
