For the first time since 1977, the Pulitzer Prize judges have neglected to award a prize in the fiction category. The The three titles that made the finals were Train Dreams, a novella by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! , a family drama by Karen Russell and The Pale King, the posthumously-completed novel by David Foster Wallace.

While the judges declined to explain the decision to not award a fiction winner, speculation says they couldn’t reach a decision, so quit.

The other categories went to:

Drama: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes, which concerns an Iraq War veteran’s search for meaning.
Biography: George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis.
Poetry: Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith.
Non-fiction: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.

Kudos to all the winners, and the three fiction finalists for flummoxing the Pulitzer judges into a deadlock.