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News May 4, 2026

The 2026 Pulitzer Prize Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Marjorie Miller
Administrator, The Pulitzer Prizes
[email protected]

New York, NY (May 4, 2026) — The Pulitzer Prize Board today announces the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes.

For more information on this year’s Prize Winners and Nominated Finalists in Journalism, Books, Drama and Music, please visit the Prize Winners section of Pulitzer.org to find biographical information and read winning & nominated work in Journalism.

The 2026 Pulitzer Prize winners are:
 

Journalism

Public Service

The Washington Post

Finalists:

The Wall Street Journal, for work led by Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo

Chicago Tribune

Breaking News Reporting

Staff of The Minnesota Star Tribune

Finalists:

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

Staff of the Southern California News Group

Staff of The Seattle Times

Investigative Reporting

Staff of The New York Times

Finalists:

Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose and Brandon Roberts of ProPublica

Cynthia Dizikes and Joaquin Palomino of the San Francisco Chronicle

Explanatory Reporting

Susie Neilson, Megan Fan Munce and Sara DiNatale of the San Francisco Chronicle

Finalists:

Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester of ProPublica

Staff of Bloomberg

Beat Reporting

Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham of Reuters

Finalists:

Nick Miroff of The Atlantic

Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times

Local Reporting (2 Prizes)

Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk of The Connecticut Mirror and Sophie Chou and Haru Coryne of ProPublica

Staff of the Chicago Tribune (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it was originally entered and nominated.)

Finalists:

Liz Bowie, Greg Morton, Ryan Little and Allan James Vestal of The Baltimore Banner

Staffs of the Miami Herald and WLRN

National Reporting

Staff of Reuters, notably Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler and Mike Spector

Finalists:

Staff of Bloomberg

Staff of The Washington Post

International Reporting

Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal and Yael Grauer, contributor, of Associated Press

Finalists:

Stephanie Nolen of The New York Times

Staff of The Wall Street Journal, notably Jared Malsin

Feature Writing

Aaron Parsley of Texas Monthly

Finalists:

Emily Baumgaertner Nunn of The New York Times

Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker

Criticism

Mark Lamster of The Dallas Morning News

Finalists:

Michael J. Lewis of The Wall Street Journal

Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker

Opinion Writing

M. Gessen of The New York Times

Finalists:

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times

Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times

Illustrated Reporting and Commentary

Anand RK and Suparna Sharma, contributors, and Natalie Obiko Pearson of Bloomberg

Finalists:

Ivan Ehlers, freelancer

Peter Kuper, freelancer

Adolfo Arranz, Poppy McPherson, Devjyot Ghoshal and Han Huang of Reuters

Breaking News Photography

Saher Alghorra, contributor, The New York Times

Finalists:

Photography Staff of the Los Angeles Times

Photography Staff of Reuters

Feature Photography

Jahi Chikwendiu of The Washington Post

Finalists:

Photography Staff of The New York Times

Gabrielle Lurie of the San Francisco Chronicle

Audio Reporting

Staff of Pablo Torre Finds Out

Finalists:

Azeen Ghorayshi and Austin Mitchell of The New York Times

Valerie Bauerlein, Heather Rogers, Colin McNulty, Nathan Singhapok and Rachel Humphreys of The Wall Street Journal and Spotify Studios


Books, Drama and Music

Fiction

“Angel Down,” by Daniel Kraus (Atria Books)

Finalists:

“Audition,” by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books)

“Stag Dance: A Quartet,” by Torrey Peters (Random House)

Drama

“Liberation,” by Bess Wohl

Finalists:

“Bowl EP,” by Nazareth Hassan

“Meet the Cartozians,” by Talene Monahon

History

“We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution,” by Jill Lepore (Liveright)

Finalists:

“King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation,” by Scott Anderson (Doubleday)

“Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and The Remaking of the American City,” by Bench Ansfield (W.W. Norton & Company)

Biography

“Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution,” by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Finalists:

“True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen,” by Lance Richardson (Pantheon)

“The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford,” by James McWilliams (University of Arkansas Press)

Memoir or Autobiography

“Things in Nature Merely Grow,” by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Finalists:

“Clam Down: A Metamorphosis,” by Anelise Chen (One World)

“Bibliophobia: A Memoir,” by Sarah Chihaya (Random House)

“I'll Tell You When I'm Home: A Memoir,” by Hala Alyan (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)

Poetry

“Ars Poeticas,” by Juliana Spahr (Wesleyan University Press)

Finalists:

“I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always,” by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books)

“The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems,” by Patricia Smith (Scribner)

General Nonfiction

“There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America,” by Brian Goldstone (Crown)

Finalists:

“A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children,” by Haley Cohen Gilliland (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)

“Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church,” by Kevin Sack (Crown)

Music

“Picaflor: A Future Myth,” by Gabriela Lena Frank

Finalists:

“American Descent,” by by Andrew Rindfleisch

“In the Arms of the Beloved,” by Billy Childs


Special Citations

Julie K. Brown


Please note that Pulitzer.org/media is no longer maintained due to the obsolescence of this format. Official "long list" and "short list" press releases disseminated by embargo to news organizations may be accessed here via their respective hyperlinks. As the Pulitzer Prize Board and the Administrator's Office are not legally empowered to license winning and nominated work to news organizations and other third-party content creators, the Administrator's Office will no longer respond to licensing requests. This content also is housed in the Prize Winners section of Pulitzer.org, where biographical information and winning & nominated work in Journalism and biographical information and contextual summaries of winning & nominated work in Books, Drama and Music may be accessed.

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