The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1980.

Journalism awards

Firing Squad in Iran, holder of Prize for Spot News Photography

• Public Service:
  • Gannett News Service, for its series on financial contributions to the Pauline Fathers.
• Local General or Spot News Reporting:
  • Staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer, for coverage of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
• Local Investigative Specialized Reporting:
  • Stephen A. Kurkjian, Alexander B. Hawes Jr., Nils Bruzelius, Joan Vennochi and Robert M. Porterfield of The Boston Globe Spotlight Team, for articles on Boston's transit system.
• National Reporting:
  • Bette Swenson Orsini and Charles Stafford of the St. Petersburg Times, for their investigation of the Church of Scientology.
• International Reporting:
  • Joel Brinkley, reporter and Jay Mather, photographer of The Louisville Courier-Journal, for stories from Cambodia.
• Feature Writing:
  • Madeleine Blais of The Miami Herald, for Zepp's Last Stand.
• Commentary:
  • Ellen H. Goodman of The Boston Globe
• Criticism:
  • William A. Henry III of The Boston Globe, for critical writing about television.
• Editorial Writing:
  • Robert L. Bartley of The Wall Street Journal
• Editorial Cartooning:
  • Don Wright of The Miami News
• Spot News Photography:
  • Anonymous, distributed by United Press International, for Firing Squad in Iran. In 2006, the photographer was identified as Jahangir Razmi.
• Feature Photography:
  • Erwin H. Hagler of The Dallas Times Herald, for a series on the Western cowboy.

Letters, Drama and Music Awards

• Fiction:
  • The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)
• Drama:
  • Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson (Hill & Wang)
• History:
  • Been in the Storm So Long by Leon F. Litwack (Knopf)
• Biography or Autobiography:
  • The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (Coward)
• Poetry:
  • Selected Poems by Donald Justice (Atheneum)
• General Non-fiction:
  • G del, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (Basic Books)
• Music:
  • In Memory of a Summer Day by David Del Tredici (Boosey & Hawkes)

External links