The Pulitzer Prizes for 1982 are:

Journalism awards

• Public Service:
  • The Detroit News, for exposing a cover-up in the U.S. Navy, which led to reforms in the Navy.
• Local General or Spot News Reporting:
  • Staff of The Kansas City Star and The Kansas City Times, for coverage of the disaster at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
• Local Investigative Specialized Reporting:
  • Paul Henderson of The Seattle Times for proving a man's innocence in a rape investigation.
• National Reporting:
  • Rick Atkinson of The Kansas City Times, for maintaining a high quality of reporting on issues of national interest.
• International Reporting:
  • John Darnton of The New York Times, for his reporting from Poland.
• Feature Writing:
  • Saul Pett of the Associated Press, for an article on federal bureaucracy
• Commentary:
  • Art Buchwald of Los Angeles Times Syndicate, for his outstanding commentary.
• Criticism:
  • Martin Bernheimer of the Los Angeles Times, for his classical music criticism.
• Editorial Writing:
  • Jack Rosenthal of The New York Times
• Editorial Cartooning:
  • Ben Sargent of the Austin American-Statesman
• Spot News Photography:
  • Ron Edmonds of the Associated Press, for his photographs covering the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan.
• Feature Photography:
  • John H. White of the Chicago Sun-Times, for his consistently excellent photographs.

Letters, Drama and Music Awards

• Fiction:
  • Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)
• Drama:
  • A Soldier's Play, by Charles Fuller (Hill and Wang)
• History:
  • Mary Chesnut's Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (Yale U. Press)
• Biography or Autobiography:
  • Grant: A Biography by William McFeely (Norton)
• Poetry:
  • The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath (a posthumous publication) (Harper & Row)
• General Non-Fiction:
  • The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder (Atlantic-Little )
• Music:
  • Concerto for Orchestra, by Roger Sessions (E. B. Marks Music)