The Pulitzer Prize, PULL-it-sər,This is the preferred pronunciation according to the Pulitzer website. /ˈpjuːlɨtsɚ/ PYOOL-it-sər is also a common pronunciation (Oxford English Dictionary, Random House, American Heritage dictionaries). is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in newspaper journalism, literary achievements and musical composition. It is administered by Columbia University in New York City.

Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash reward. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal, which always goes to a newspaper, although an individual may be named in the citation.

The prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the university's journalism school in 1912. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on June 4 1917, and they are now announced each April. Recipients are chosen by an independent board. Ironically, Pulitzer, along with William Hearst, was one of the originators of yellow journalism.

Several of the more famous recipients of the Pulitzer Prize include Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee and Toni Morrison for Fiction; Robert Frost for Poetry; Roger Ebert for Criticism; and Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Stephen Sondheim for Drama.

Notable winners of more than one Pulitzer Prize include David McCullough (twice) for Biography; Robert Frost (four times) for Poetry; Eugene O'Neill (four times), Edward Albee (three times), and August Wilson (twice) for Drama; and William Faulkner (twice), Norman Mailer (twice), John Updike (twice), and Booth Tarkington (twice) for Novel / Fiction. (This category's name was changed in 1948 from Novel to Fiction.)

Both Eugene O'Neill and Booth Tarkington accomplished the feat of winning the prize twice in a four-year period. Thornton Wilder is notable for winning prizes in more than one category—one in the Novel category and two in the Drama categories.

Categories

Awards are made in categories relating to newspaper journalism, arts, and letters. Only published reports and photographs by United States-based newspapers or daily news organizations are eligible for the journalism prize. Beginning in 2007, "an assortment of online elements will be permitted in all journalism categories except for the competition's two photography categories, which will continue to restrict entries to still images."Pulitzer Board Widens Range of Online Journalism in Entries, from the Pulitzer website