James Alan McPherson won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Elbow Room, making him the first African American writer to receive the prize. It was published in 1977 as a collection of twelve short stories, not as a conventional novel.
McPherson’s stories explore race, class, identity, family, and American social life. The book followed his earlier collection Hue and Cry, published in 1969, but Elbow Room brought him the major national recognition. Its title story is also the final piece in the volume.
A common mix-up is the date: the book appeared in 1977, while the Pulitzer was awarded in 1978. Another is confusing Elbow Room with Hue and Cry, which was McPherson’s first story collection but not his Pulitzer-winning book. McPherson later taught for decades at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.