2025 | 24th Thurber Prize

2025 WINNER:

Alexandra Petri, Alexandra Petri’s US History

2025 FINALISTS:

Jason Roeder, Griefstrike!

Jane Roper, The Society of Shame

2024 | 23rd Thurber Prize

2024 WINNER:

S.E. Boyd, The Lemon

2024 FINALISTS:

Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

Elinor Lipman, Ms. Demeanor

2023 | 22nd Thurber Prize

2023 WINNER:

Steven Rowley, The Guncle

2023 FINALISTS:

Annabelle Gurwitch, You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility

Danielle Henderson, The Ugly Cry

2022 | 21st Thurber Prize

2022 WINNER:

James McBride, Deacon King Kong

2022 FINALISTS:

Mike Birbiglia, The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad

Alexandra Petri: Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why

2021 | 20th Thurber Prize

2021 Winner:

Damon Young, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker

2021 Finalists:

Dave Barry, Lessons from Lucy

Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom

2019 | 19th Thurber Prize

2019 Winner:

Simon Rich, Hits & Misses

2019 Finalists:

Sloane Crosley, Look Alive Out There

John Kenney, Love Poems for Married People

2018 | 18th Thurber Prize

2018 Winner:

Patricia Lockwood, Priestdaddy

2018 Finalists:

Jenny Allen, Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas

John Hodgman, Vactionland: True Stories from Painful Beaches

2017 | 17th Thurber Prize

2017 Winner:

Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

2017 Finalists:

Ken Pisani, Amp'd

Aaron Thier, Mr. Eternity

2016 | 16th Thurber Prize

2016 Winner:

Harrison Scott Key, The World's Largest Man

2016 Finalists:

Jason Gay, Little Victories

Mary Norris, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

2015 | 15th Thurber Prize

2015 Winner:

Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members

2015 Finalists:

Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Annabelle Gurwitch, I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50

2014 | 14th Thurber Prize

2014 Winner:

John Kenney, Truth in Advertising

2014 Finalists:

Liza Donnelly, Women on Men

Bruce McCall and David Letterman, This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me)

2013 | 13th Thurber Prize

2013 Winner:

Dan Zevin, Dan Gets a Minivan: Life at the Intersection of Dude and Dad

2013 Finalists:

Shalom Auslander, Hope, A Tragedy

Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, Lunatics: A Novel

2012 | 12th Thurber Prize

2012 Winner:

Calvin Trillin, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff

2012 Finalists:

Nate DiMeo and the creative team of Parks and Recreation, Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America

Patricia Marx, Starting From Happy

2011 | 11th Thurber Prize

2011 Winner:

David Rakoff, Half Empty

2011 Finalists:

Rick Reilly, Sports from Hell

Mike Birbiglia, Sleepwalk with Me

2010 | 10th Thurber Prize

2010 Winner:

Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist

2010 Finalists:

Jancee Dunn, Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo

Rhoda Janzen, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

2009 | 9th Thurber Prize

2009 Winner:

Ian Frazier, Lamentations of the Father

2009 Finalists: 

Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd Be Cake

Don Lee, Wrack and Ruin

Laurie Notaro, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death

2008 | 8th Thurber Prize

2008 Winner:

Larry Doyle, I Love You, Beth Cooper 

2008 Finalists:

Patricia Marx, Him Her Him Again The End of Him 

Simon Rich, Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations

2007 | 7th Thurber Prize

2007 Winner:

Joe Keenan, My Lucky Star 

2007 Finalists:

Merrill Markoe, Walking in Circles Before Lying Down 

Bob Newhart, I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This and Other Things That Strike Me Funny

2006 | 6th Thurber Prize

2006 Winner:

Alan Zweibel, The Other Shulman 

2006 Finalists:

Bill Scheft, Time Won’t Let Me 

Kinky Friedman, Texas Hold ‘Em

2005 | 5th Thurber Prize

2005 Winner:

Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show, America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

2005 Finalists:

Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers

Firoozeh Dumas, Funny in Farsi

2004 | 4th Thurber Prize

2004 Winner:

Christopher Buckley, No Way to Treat a First Lady 

2004 Finalists:

Robert Kaplow, Me and Orson Welles 

Dan Zevin, The Day I Turned Uncool 

2001 | 3rd Thurber Prize

2001 Winner:  

David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day 

2001 Special Honor Book:  

Henry Alford, Big Kiss 

2001 Finalists: 

Andy Borowitz, The Trillionaire Next Door 

Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country 

Brett Leveridge, Men My Mother Dated 

Jim Mullen, It Takes a Village Idiot 

1999 | 2nd Thurber Prize

1999 Winner: 

The editors of The Onion, Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America’s Finest News Source  

1997 | 1st Thurber Prize

1997 Winner: 

Ian Frazier, Coyote v. Acme 

1997 Honor Books: 

David Sedaris, Naked 

Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations