1920

Silver Badge, St. Nicholas Magazine, for a drawing "A Heading for August."

1921

$25 prize in "Jackie Mackie Jingles Contest."

1925

Gold Badge, St. Nicholas Magazine, for a poem "In the Twilight."

1938

"Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" in The Best American Short Stories of 1938.

1939

"Petrified Man" in Prize Stories 1939: The O. Henry Awards.

1940

"The Hitchhikers" in Best American Short Stories 1940.

1940

Bread Loaf Fellowship for the upcoming summer.

1941

Yaddo Writers' Conference, Saratoga Springs, New York.

1941

"A Worn Path" in Prize Stories 1941: The O. Henry Awards.

1942

Guggenheim Fellowship.

1942

"The Wide Net" in Prize Stories 1942: The O. Henry Awards, second place.

1943

"Asphodel" in The Best American Short Stories of 1943.

1943

"Livvie Is Back" in Prize Stories 1943: The O. Henry Awards, first place.

1944

American Academy of Arts and Letters, $1000 prize.

1946

"A Sketching Trip" in Prize Stories 1946: The O. Henry Awards.

1947

"The Whole World Knows" in Prize Stories 1947: The O. Henry Awards.

1949

Guggenheim fellowship renewal.

1951

"The Burning" in Prize Stories 1951: The O. Henry Awards, second place.

1952

Election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1954

Honorary LL.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

1955

Howells Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for The Ponder Heart.

1956

Honorary LL.D. from Smith College.

1957

"A Flock of Guinea Hens Seen from a Car" in Best Poems of 1957.

1958

Honorary Consultant to Library of Congress.

1958

Lucy Donnelley Fellowship Award from Bryn Mawr College.

1960

Ford Foundation grant for two seasons of observation and study at New York's Phoenix Theatre.

1962

Henry Bellamann Memorial Foundation for Contribution to American Letters. The award of $1,000 was presented at Mississippi College, Clinton.

1966

Creative Arts Medal for Fiction from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

1968

"The Demonstrators" in Prize Stories 1968: The O. Henry Awards, first place.

1970

Edward MacDowell Medal.

1971

Doctor of Letters degree from the University of the South.

1972

Election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1972

Gold Medal for Fiction of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1973

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Optimist's Daughter.

1975

Honorary Degree from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

1975

Honorary Degree from Newcomb College, New Orleans, Louisiana.

1975

Honorary Degree from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts.

1977

Honorary Degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1979

Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

1979

National Medal for Literature for 1979 from the American Book Award.

1980

Medal of Freedom given by Jimmy Carter.

1981

Honorary Degree from William Carey College, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

1981

Medal of Excellence from Mississippi University for Women (formerly Mississippi State College for Women).

1982

Eudora Welty Chair of Southern Studies established at Millsaps College.

1982

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Columbia University.

1983

St. Louis Literary Award from Associates of St. Louis Libraries.

1984

Eudora Welty New Playwrights Series established at the New Stage Theatre of Jackson.

1984

Common Wealth Award from the Modern Language Association.

1984

Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for Fiction for lifetime achievement in arts and letters.

1984

The Lillian Smith Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Regional Council of Atlanta.

1986

Grand Master Award from the Birmingham-Southern Writer's Conference.

1986

National Medal of Arts for contributions to the nation's culture from the National Endowment for the Arts.

1986

The Eudora Welty Library, a branch of the Jackson Metropolitan Library, dedicated.

1987

French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres medal.

1987

Authors Award from the Mississippi Library Association.

1987

Sesquicentennial Medal from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.

1987

Appalachian Gold Medallion from the University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia.

1988

Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Lifetime Achievement Award.

1988

Honorary doctorate from Princeton University.

1989

Phi Beta Kappa Associates Award.

1989

Selected to have portrait hung in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution by the National Portrait Gallery Commission.

1991

The Corrington Award from the Department of English at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana.

1991

Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award from the Tulsa Library Trust.

1991

Cleanth Brooks Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Southern Letters from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

1991

National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

1991

PEN-Malamud Award for Excellence in The Short Story.

1992

Frankel Humanities Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1992

Distinguished Alumni Award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

1993

Honorary Degree from the University of Burgundy, France.

1994

Richard Wright Literary Prize from Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Wesson, Mississippi.

1996

French Légion d'Honneur.

1998

Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Mississippi University for Women (formerly Mississippi State College for Women) in Columbus.

1998

The Mayor's Arts Achievement Honors from the Arts Alliance of Jackson and Hinds County in Jackson, Mississippi.

1999

Distinguished Achievement Award from the Southern Book Critics Circle.