LITERATURE
Awards
Most Awarded Authors in Modern Award History
This list features the authors that have been awarded the most prestigious writing prizes in modern history.
When compiling this list, only the following major awards have been considered: the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Booker Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Costa First Novel Prize, the Costa Novel Prize, the Dos Passos Prize, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the International Dublin Literary Award (formerly IMPAC), the Kirkus Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the MacArthur Genius Grant, the Man Booker International Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (NBCC), the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Nobel Prize in Literature, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Whiting Award, the Windham-Campbell Prize, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
RANK | AUTHOR | AWARD WINS | BOOKS |
1 | Philip Roth | 9 | National Book Award for Goodbye, Columbus (1960) NBCC Award for The Counterlife (1987) PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock (1994) National Book Award for Sabbath’s Theater (1995) Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral (1998) PEN/Faulkner Award for The Human Stain (2001) American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (2001) PEN/Faulkner Award for Everyman (2007) Man Booker International Prize (2011) |
2 | John Updike | 8 | National Book Award for The Centaur (1964) NBCC Award for Rabbit is Rich (1981) Pulitzer Prize for Rabbit is Rich (1982) National Book Award for Rabbit is Rich (1982) NBCC Award for Rabbit at Rest (1990) Pulitzer Prize for Rabbit at Rest (1991) PEN/Faulkner Award for The Early Stories 1953-1975 (2004) American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (2007) |
3 | E. L. Doctorow | 7 | NBCC Award for Ragtime (1975) National Book Award for World’s Fair (1986) NBCC Award for Billy Bathgate (1989) PEN/Faulkner Award for Billy Bathgate (1990) NBCC Award for The March (2005) PEN/Faulkner Award for The March (2006) American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (2013) |
4 | Colson Whitehead | 7 | Whiting Award (2000) Dos Passos Prize (2012) National Book Award for The Underground Railroad (2016) Pulitzer Prize for The Underground Railroad (2017) Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence for The Underground Railroad (2017) Arthur C. Clarke Award for The Underground Railroad (2017) MacArthur Genius Grant (2002) |
5 | Saul Bellow | 6 | National Book Award for The Adventures of Augie March (1954) National Book Award for Herzog (1965) National Book Award for Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1971) Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt’s Gift (1976) Nobel Prize (1976) American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1977) |
6 | Lois McMaster Bujold | 6 | Nebula Award for Best Novel for Falling Free (1989) Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Vor Game (1991) Hugo Award for Best Novel for Barrayar (1992) Hugo Award for Best Novel for Mirror Dance (1995) Hugo Award for Best Novel for Paladin of Souls (2004) Nebula Award for Best Novel for Paladin of Souls (2004) |
7 | William Faulkner | 6 | Nobel Prize (1949) National Book Award for Collected Stories (1951) Pulitzer Prize for A Fable (1955) National Book Award for A Fable (1955) American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962) Pulitzer Prize for The Reivers (1963) |
8 | Ursula K. Le Guin | 6 | Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Left Hand of Darkness (1970) Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Left Hand of Darkness (1970) Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Dispossessed (1975) Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Dispossessed (1975) Nebula Award for Best Novel for Tehanu: the Last Book of Earthsea (1991) Nebula Award for Best Novel for Powers (2009) |
9 | Marilynne Robinson | 6 | PEN/Hemingway Award for Housekeeping (1982) NBCC Award for Gilead (2004) Pulitzer Prize for Gilead (2005) LA Times Book Prize for Home (2008) Women’s Prize for Fiction for Home (2009) NBCC Award for Lila (2014) |
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