The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1979.

• Public Service:
  • The Point Reyes Light, a California weekly. For its investigation of Synanon, (written by Dr. Richard Ofshe).^[1]
• Local General or Spot News Reporting:
  • The San Diego Evening Tribune, for its coverage of the collision of a Pacific Southwest air liner with a small plane over its city.
• Local Investigative Specialized Reporting:
  • Gilbert M. Gaul and Elliot G. Jaspin of the Pottsville Republican (Pennsylvania), for stories on the destruction of the Blue Coal Company by men with ties to organized crime.
• National Reporting:
  • James Risser of the Des Moines Register, for a series on farming damage to the environment.
• International Reporting:
  • Richard Ben Cramer of The Philadelphia Inquirer, for reports from the Middle East.
• Feature Writing:
  • Jon D. Franklin, science writer of The Baltimore Evening Sun, for an account of brain surgery.
• Commentary:
  • Russell Baker of The New York Times.
• Criticism:
  • Paul Gapp, architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune.
• Editorial Writing:
  • Edwin M. Yoder Jr. of the Washington Star.
• Editorial Cartooning:
  • Herbert Lawrence Block (Herblock) of The Washington Post, for the body of his work.
• Spot News Photography:
  • Thomas J. Kelly III of the Pottstown Mercury (Pennsylvania), for a series called Tragedy on Sanatoga Road.
• Feature Photography:
  • Staff Photographers of the Boston Herald American, for photographic coverage of the blizzard of 1978.

• Fiction:
  • The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Drama:
  • Buried Child by Sam Shepard (Urizen)
• History:
  • The Dred Scott Case by Don E. Fehrenbacher (Oxford University Press)
• Biography or Autobiography:
  • Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker (Macmillan Publishers (United States))
• Poetry:
  • Now and Then by Robert Penn Warren (Random House)
• General Non-Fiction:
  • On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard University Press)
• Music:
  • Aftertones of Infinity by Joseph Schwantner (C. F. Peters)
    first performed by the American Composers Orchestra on January 29, 1979, in Alice Tully Hall New York City.