1980s
Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.
- 1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
- Birdy by William Wharton
- The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
- 1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win)
- Godric by Frederick Buechner
- So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
- 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
- A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
- Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
- Rabbis and Wives by Chaim Grade
- 1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy
- Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- The Feud by Thomas Berger
- 1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
- I Wish This War Were Over by Diana O'Hehir
- Leaving the Land by Douglas Unger
- 1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
- Continental Drift by Russell Banks
- 1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
- Paradise by Donald Barthelme
- Whites by Norman Rush
- 1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Persian Nights by Diane Johnson
- That Night by Alice McDermott
- 1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
- Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver
Read more about this topic: Pulitzer Prize For Fiction