普利策文学奖不是一个独立的奖项，而是普利策奖众多分枝中的一个。
1904年———在其去世前 7年，约瑟夫·普利策立下遗嘱，将自己的财产捐献给美国的哥伦比亚大学，由他们建立一个新闻学院。这笔高达200万美元的款项中，有四分之一被用来设立奖项，后来这笔钱成为了普利策奖的基金。1917年，该奖的第一届颁奖仪式举行，此后每年颁发一次。
约瑟夫·普利策生前是美国最著名的报人，他创立的编辑写作制度至今都在影响着报业的运作。因而普利策奖中最重要的组成部分就是新闻类奖项，目前共包含突发新闻报道奖、调查报道奖等14个。但是“由于普利策敏锐、有远见的洞察力”，该奖还设立了文艺类奖项，目前包括 6个文学奖和一个音乐奖，而且正是这些非新闻类的奖项在一定程度上扩大了普利策奖的影响力。目前普利策奖每个奖项的奖金为一万美元。
其实，最初普利策只设立了13个奖项，其中文学奖有 5个，包括小说类、戏剧类和传记类等等。但是出于长远考虑，他决定设立一个监督咨询委员会，由后者在将来确定奖项的设立、变更等等。几十年来，这个委员会做出了一些很有突破性的决定，曾先后增设了摄影类和诗类奖项，并打破了“音乐奖的评选范围仅限于古典音乐领域”的界限。
普利策文学奖的标新立异之处在于它与大众口味的背道而驰，畅销的文学作品从不受它的垂青，即便大作家的作品也不例外。 1941年它就“抛弃”了红极一时的《丧钟为谁而鸣》，直到12年后《老人与海》问世时，它才将文学奖授予海明威。同样如福克纳的《八月之光》也有此“待遇”。这种评选使得它经常被置于争议之中，在一本《美国普利策奖金内幕》的书中就曾提到，1988年曾有近50位作家给媒体写信，怒称两名最受读者推崇的美国黑人作家从未进入普利策奖的视野，并认为它有种族主义倾向。而且普利策文学奖空缺多届，迄今已不下10次。
实际上很多优秀的作品还是没有被普利策文学奖错过的，其中包括伊迪丝·华顿的《天真时代》（ 1921年获奖）、赛珍珠的《大地》（ 1932年获奖）、玛格丽特·米切尔的《飘》（ 1937年获奖）、约翰·斯坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》（ 1940年获奖）、赫尔曼·沃克的《凯恩舰哗变》（ 1952年获奖）、哈珀·李的《杀死一只知更鸟》（ 1961年获奖）、艾丽斯·沃克的《紫色》（ 1983年获奖）等等。这些作品都曾在中国出版过。
普利策文学奖历年获奖名单：
Fiction
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1991 Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison
1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1980 The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1977 No Award
1976 Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1974 No Award
1973 The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1971 No Award
1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford
1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
1965 The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
Nonfiction
2003 A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
2002 Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter
2001 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix
2000 Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower
1999 Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
1998 Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
1997 Ashes to Ashes by Richard Kluger
1996 The Haunted Land by Tina Rosenberg
1995 The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner
1994 Lenin’s Tomb by David Remnick
1993 Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
1992 The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin
1991 The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson
1990 And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson
1989 A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
1988 The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
1987 Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler
1986 Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas
Biography
2003 Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro
2002 John Adams by David McCullough
2001 W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis
2000 Véra by Stacy Schiff
1999 Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
1998 Personal History by Katharine Graham
1997 Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
1996 God: A Biography by Jack Miles
1995 Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan D. Hedrick
1994 W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis
1993 Truman by David McCullough
1992 Fortunate Son by Lewis B. Puller Jr.
1991 Jackson Pollock by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
1990 Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian de Grazia
1989 Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann
1988 Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald
1987 Bearing the Cross by David J. Garrow
1986 Louise Bogan: A Portrait by Elizabeth Frank
History
2003 An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson
2002 The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand
2001 Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis
2000 Freedom from Fear by David M. Kennedy
1999 Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace
1998 Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson
1997 Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution by Jack N. Rakove
1996 William Cooper’s Town by Alan Taylor
1995 No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin
1994 No Award
1993 The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
1992 The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties by Mark E. Neely Jr.
1991 A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
1990 In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines by Stanley Karnow
1989 Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
And Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
1988 The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846-1976 by Robert V. Bruce
1987 Voyagers to the West by Bernard Bailyn
1986 The Heavens and the Earth by Walter A. McDougall
Drama
2003 Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz
2002 Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
2001 Proof by David Auburn
2000 Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies
1999 Wit by Margaret Edson
1998 How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
1997 No Award
1996 Rent by Jonathan Larson
1995 The Young Man from Atlanta by Horton Foote
1994 Three Tall Women by Edward Albee
1993 Angels in America by Tony Kushner
1992 The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan
1991 Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon
1990 The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
1989 The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein
1988 Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry
1987 Fences by August Wilson
1986 No Award
Poetry
2003 Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon
2002 Practical Gods by Carl Dennis
2001 Different Hours by Stephen Dunn
2000 Repair by C.K. Williams
1999 Blizzard of One by Mark Strand
1998 Black Zodiac by Charles Wright
1997 Alive Together by Lisel Mueller
1996 The Dream of the Unified Front by Jorie Graham
1995 The Simple Truth by Philip Levine
1994 Neon Vernacular by Yusef Komunyakaa
1993 The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
1992 Selected Poems by James Tate
1991 Near Changes by Mona Van Duyn
1990 The World Doesn’t End by Charles Simic
1989 New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur
1988 Partial Accounts by William Meredith
1987 Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove
1986 The Flying Change by Henry Taylor
