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The John Dos Passos Prize is awarded annually to the best currently under-recognized American writer in the middle of their career.

The Prize was founded at Longwood University in 1980 and is meant to honor John Dos Passos by recognizing other writers in his name. The prize is administered by a committee from the Department of English and Modern Languages; the chair of the committee also serves as the chair of the prize jury. Other members on the committee include the immediate past recipient and a distinguished critic, editor, or scholar.

Recipients of the prize receive $2,000 and a bronze medal engraved with their name.

[edit] Recipients

1980	Graham Greene	(Awarded before the prize was limited to strictly American authors.)
1981	Gilbert Sorrentino
1982	Robert Stone
1983	Doris Betts
1984	Tom Wolfe
1985	Russell Banks
1986	John Edgar Wideman
1987	Lee Smith
1988	Shelby Foote
1989	Paule Marshall
1990	Larry Woiwode
1991	Elizabeth Spencer
1992	William Hoffman
1993	Ernest J. Gaines
1994	James Welch
1995	Helena Maria Viramontes
1997	E. Annie Proulx
1998	Maxine Hong Kingston
1999	Eric Kraft
2000	Jill McCorkle
2001	Madison Smartt Bell
2002	Randall Kenan
2003	Richard Powers
2004	Maureen Howard
2005	Tim Gautreaux
2006	Kent Haruf
2008	Allen Wier	- 2009||Robert Bausch||