FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
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.