Balakian's prizes and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, 1999; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 2004; PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, 1998; Raphael Lemkin Prize, 2005 (best book in English on the subject of human rights and genocide); New Jersey Council for the Humanities Book Award, 1998; Daniel Varujan Prize, New England Poetry Club, 1986; Anahid Literary Prize, Columbia University Armenian Center, 1990, and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in Poetry for "Ozone Journal", 2016. According to the Pulitzer board, Balakian's work "bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that undergird a global age of danger and uncertainty." He is also a recipient of the Khorenatsi medal. 2016 he was awarded Armenia's 2015 Presidential Award for significant contribution to the process of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.