Awards and Other Recognitions:
Several nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
PEN/Malamud Award for lifetime achievements in the short story.
Rea Award for the Short Story for significant contributions to the development of the genre.
Election to membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
National Book Award for them, 1970.
Finalist for the National Book Award for Blonde, 2000.
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for What I Lived For, 1995.
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Black Water, 1993.
Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writers of America, 1994.
Lotus Club Award of Merit, 1975.
Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities at Princeton University.
Selection of "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" for inclusion in Prize Stories 2001: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Mark of Satan" for inclusion in Prize Stories 1996: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "You Petted Me, and I Followed You Home" for inclusion in Prize Stories 1995: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Goose Girl" for inclusion in Prize Stories 1993: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Why Don't You Come Live with Me, It's Time" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Swimmers" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1991: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Heat" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1990: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "House Hunting" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Yarrow" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1988: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Ancient Airs, Voices" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1987: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Master Race" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1986: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Axe, the Axe, the Axe" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1985: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "My Warszawa" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1983: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Man Whom Women Adored" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1982: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Mutilated Woman" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1981: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "In the Autumn of the Year" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1979: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Tattoo" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1978: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Blood-Swollen Landscape" for inclusion in Prize Stories 1976: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Dead" for inclusion in Prize Stories 1973: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Saul Bird Says: Relate! Communicate! Liberate!" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1972: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Children" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1971: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters" and "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life over Again" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1970: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Accomplished Desires" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1969: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1968: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "In the Region of Ice" as the First-Prize Story in Prize Stories 1967: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "First Views of the Enemy" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1965: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Stigmata" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1964: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "The Fine White Mist of Winter" for Inclusion in Prize Stories 1963: The O. Henry Awards.
Selection of "Ghost Girls" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1996.
Selection of "Is Laughter Contagious?" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1992.
Selection of "American Abroad" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1991.
Selection of "Raven's Wing" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1985.
Selection of "Nairobi" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1984.
Selection of "Theft" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1982.
Selection of "Presque Isle" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1981.
Selection of "Gay" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1977.
Selection of "Silkie" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1973.
Selection of "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life over Again" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1970.
Selection of "By the River" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1969.
Selection of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1967.
Selection of "First Views of the Enemy" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1965.
Selection of "Upon the Sweeping Flood" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1964.
Selection of "The Fine White Mist of Winter" for Inclusion in Best American Short Stories, 1963.
Selection of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" for Inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century.
Selection of "Nairobi" for Inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Eighties.
Selection of "The Undesirable Table" for Inclusion in Pushcart Prize XX: Best of the Small Presses, 1995-1996.
Selection of "Detente" for Inclusion in Pushcart Prize VII: Best of the Small Presses, 1982-1983.
Selection of "The Hallucination" for Inclusion in Pushcart Prize I: Best of the Small Presses, 1976-1977.
Inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories, 1997.
Selection of "The Brothers" for Inclusion in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 1995.
Selection of "Questions" for Inclusion in The Best of Playboy Fiction, Volume 4.
Selection of "The Swimmers" for Inclusion in The Best of Playboy Fiction, Volume 6.
Selection of Blonde for the Times Literary Supplement List of "International Books of the Year," 2000.
Nomination for a Frankfurt Award, for electronic books, for Faithless: Tales of Transgression, 2001.
Number 1 Best Seller, We Were the Mulvaneys.
Oprah Book Club Selection, We Were the Mulvaneys.
Major Selection of the Literary Guild of America, Do with Me What You Will.
Featured Alternate of the Literary Guild of America, The Assassins.
Featured Alternate of the Literary Guild of America, Childwold.
Book-of-the-Month-Club Selection and Reissue, Expensive People.
Book-of-the-Month-Club Selection and Reissue, Them.
Book-of-the-Month-Club Selection and Reissue, Wonderland.
Selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club, Expensive People.
Selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club, them.
Selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club, Wonderland.
Winner of the Annual Mademoiselle Fiction Contest for Undergraduate Writers, 1959.