Awards and Honors
- Aga Khan Award, Paris Review, 1958
- Houghton-Mifflin literary fellowship, 1959
- National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, 1959
- National Book Award for Fiction for Goodbye, Columbus, 1960
- Daroff Award, Jewish Book Council of America for Goodbye, Columbus, 1960
- Second prize in the O. Henry Prize Story Contest for “Defender of the Faith,” 1960
- Guggenheim fellowship, 1960
- Ford Foundation grant in playwriting, 1965
- Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1970
- National Book Critics Circle Award for The Counterlife, 1987
- National Arts Club Medal of Honor, 1991
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Patrimony, 1992
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Operation Shylock, 1993
- Time magazine’s Best American Novel of the year for Operation Shylock, 1994
- Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in the Arts, 1993
- Karl Capek Prize (Czech Republic), 1994
- National Book Award for fiction, Sabbath’s Theater, 1995
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, American Pastoral, 1997
- Ambassador Book Award, English-Speaking Union, for I Married a Communist, 1998
- National Medal of Arts, 1998
- Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger for American Pastoral, 2000
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Human Stain, 2001
- Time magazine’s America’s Best Novelist, 2001
- American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Gold Metal for Fiction, 2001
- Franz Kafka Prize (Czech Republic), 2001
- W.H. Smith Literary Award for The Human Stain, 2001
- Prix Médicis étranger for The Human Stain, 2002
- National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, 2002
- Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Harvard University, 2003
- Sidewise Award for Alternate History for The Plot Against America, 2005
- James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction for The Plot Against America, 2005
- PEN/Nabokov Award, 2006
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Everyman, 2007
- PEN/Bellow Award, 2007
- Hadada Prize, Paris Review, 2010
- Man Booker International Prize, 2011
Nominations
- National Book Award finalist for My Life as a Man, 1975
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Professor of Desire, 1978
- American Book Award finalist for The Ghost Writer, 1980
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist for The Ghost Writer, 1980
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Ghost Writer, 1980
- National Books Critics Circle Award finalist for The Anatomy Lesson, 1984
- National Book Award finalist for The Anatomy Lesson, 1984
- National Book Award finalist for The Counterlife, 1986
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist for Operation Shylock, 1994
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist for Sabbath’s Theater, 1996
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for American Pastoral, 1997
- National Book Award finalist for American Pastoral, 1997
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Plot Against America, 2005
