The three finalist were an odd bunch and none of the books received a majority of the votes.
Train Dreams was not published in 2011, but republished in 2011.
The Pale King was an incomplete novel by the late David Foster Wallace.
Swamplandia! was not a typically written novel and not up to the standards of the jurors.
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was created in 1948.
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007.
Ellen Glasgow won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel, In This Our Life.
Martin Flavin won the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Journey in the Dark. The Pulitzer Prize Board changed the category from "Novel" to "Fiction" in 1948.
The 2002 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction was Richard Russo for his novel "Empire Falls."
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Cormac McCarthy won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel, The Road.
Pulitzer Prize
Alison Lurie won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel Foreign Affairs (Random House).
The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize in the Novel category. The Pulitzer Prize board changed the category to "Fiction" in 1948.
Toni Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her novel, Beloved.
Philip Roth won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel, American Pastoral (Houghton Mifflin).