The Pulitzer Prizes for 1996 were announced on ?, 1996.

Journalism awards

Letters awards

• biography or autobiography: God: A Biography by Jack Miles
• fiction: Independence Day by Richard Ford
• general non-fiction: The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
• history: William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic by Alan Taylor
• poetry: The Dream of the Unified Field by Jorie Graham

Arts awards

• drama: Rent by Jonathan Larson
• music: Lilacs by George Walker (composer)