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title: Pulitzer Prize: Winners Include Colson Whitehead, ProPublica
description: Author of "The Underground Railroad," Colson Whitehead, is among the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winners.
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author: Sarah Begley
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article:published_time: 2017-04-10T19:54:51.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:19:40.405Z
article:section: Ideas
og:title: Colson Whitehead Among This Year's Pulitzer Prize Winners
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![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt489f0b83625e7233/6988c2230b72e31c586ed457/underground.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# Colson Whitehead Wins Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for _The Underground Railroad_

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by 

[Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/)


## Sarah Begley


Apr 10, 2017 7:54 PM UTC

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt489f0b83625e7233/6988c2230b72e31c586ed457/underground.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

Doubleday

by 

[Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/)


## Sarah Begley


Apr 10, 2017 7:54 PM UTC

[Colson Whitehead](http://time.com/4447972/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad/) won the top award in American literature on Monday, receiving the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel [_The Underground Railroad_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385542364/?tag=timecom-20). The story of slaves escaping via a literal railroad had previously won the [National Book Award](http://time.com/4574326/colson-whitehead-national-book-award/) and was selected as part of Oprah’s Book Club. Fellow finalists in the fiction category were Adam Haslett for [_Imagine Me Gone_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316261335/?tag=timecom-20) and C.E. Morgan for [_The Sport of Kings_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374281084/?tag=timecom-20).

Lynn Nottage took home the prize in drama for [_Sweat_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1559365323/?tag=timecom-20), which has already been received as perhaps the [first notable play of the Trump era](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-first-theatrical-landmark-of-the-trump-era). Hisham Matar’s [_The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812985087/?tag=timecom-20) won the prize for biography, Heather Ann Thompson’s [_Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375423222/?tag=timecom-20)won for history, and Matthew Desmond’s [_Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553447459/?tag=timecom-20) won for general nonfiction. The poetry prize went to Tyehimba Jess’s [_Olio_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1940696208/?tag=timecom-20) and the music prize went to Du Yun’s _Angel’s Bone_.

**Read more:** [**An excerpt from Thompson’s** **_Blood in the Water_**](http://time.com/4447168/blood-water-excerpt/)

In journalism, the New York Daily _News_ and ProPublica shared the public service award for their reporting on eviction rules. Three awards went to work that appeared in the New York _Times_ and two to the Miami _Herald_. The _New Yorker_‘s Hilton Als won the prize for criticism, and the Wall Street _Journal_‘s Peggy Noonan won for commentary.

Read the full list of winners [here](http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2017).

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