When the Pulitzer Prize winners were announced in April, many people were surprised that no fiction award was given this year. The publishing industry is understandably irritated by this decision—or indecision. Sig Gissler, the administrator of the Pulitzers for Columbia University, explained that a three-person jury chooses three finalists out of hundreds of books, then sends the finalists to the Pulitzer board, which, this year, was unable to determine a winner. The finalists were Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!, Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams, and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, published after the author’s death.

Susan Larson, a Pulitzer fiction juror, spoke with NPR’s Lynn Neary about the board’s not picking a winner.

Novelist and bookstore owner Anne Patchett wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times about her disappointment. 

The New York Times asked eight experts to weigh in on who they thought deserved the award this year.

Weigh in: What novels do you think should have won this year? Leave a comment below to let us know!