Which novel by Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017?

The novel by Colson Whitehead that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017 was The Underground Railroad.

Published in 2016, the novel follows Cora, an enslaved woman who escapes a Georgia plantation and seeks freedom through a literal underground railway. Whitehead transforms the historical Underground Railroad into an actual train network, blending documented horrors of slavery with elements of fantasy, allegory, and alternate history.

The Pulitzer citation praised the book’s combination of realism and allegory. Its title can cause confusion because the real Underground Railroad was not a physical railroad, but a secret network of people, routes, and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape. Whitehead’s imaginative device makes that metaphor visible within the story.

The award was announced in April 2017, and the prize recognized the novel’s treatment of slavery, race, violence, and American history. Whitehead later became the fourth author to win the Fiction Pulitzer twice when The Nickel Boys received the award in 2020; that later victory is a common source of mix-ups.