When nominations open later this year for the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes, a whole new group of writers have reason to be hopeful about their chances for the prestigious award. This past September, the Pulitzer’s board of directors opened eligibility in the books, drama, and music categories to permanent residents of the United States and others “who have made the United States their longtime primary home.”
The news represents a major victory for activists—particularly undocumented writers—who for years have been lobbying literary prize organizations to allow noncitizens to qualify for awards.
Novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras—who helpedan open letter in August calling for the Pulitzer Prizes to consider noncitizen writers—cried when she heard the news. “It sends a message to migrant writers who are too early and too often discouraged from the path of writing,” she says.
