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Finalist: I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist’s Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India , by Rollo Romig (Penguin Books)

A captivating account of a crusading South Indian’s murder, a mystery rich in local culture and politics that also connects to such global themes as authoritarianism, fundamentalism and other threats to free expression.

Nominated Work

I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist’s Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India

I Am on the Hit List by Rollo Romig

“Romig makes for a powerful, effective chronicler of this bleak moment in Indian politics.”—The New York Times

A gripping investigation into the mysterious assassination of a journalist in India, revealing the courage and vulnerability of those who are fighting the decline of democracy around the world.

When Gauri Lankesh, an outspoken journalist in the South Indian city of Bangalore, was assassinated in September 2017 outside her home, it wasn’t just a loss to her close-knit community of writers and activists—the shock reverberated nationwide, making headlines and sparking mass protests. Why was she targeted, and who was behind it? Following the case to its stunning, unsettling conclusion, Rollo Romig uncovers a world of political extremists, fearless writers, organized crime, and shadowy religious groups. I Am on the Hit List is an epic narrative that moves between a historic booksellers’ district and brand-new high rises funded by IT wealth, to a secretive ashram in Goa and the kitchens of an international vegetarian restaurant chain, boldly interrogating whether we can break the cycle of polarization and bloodshed inspiring political murder across the globe.

Biography

Born and raised in Detroit, Rollo Romig is a journalist, essayist, and critic. He has been reporting on South India since 2013, most often for The New York Times Magazine.
 

Winners

Prize Winner in General Nonfiction in 2025:

Benjamin Nathans

A prodigiously researched and revealing history of Soviet dissent, how it was repeatedly put down and came to life again, populated by a sprawling cast of courageous people dedicated to fighting for threatened freedoms and hard-earned rights. General Nonfiction

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in General Nonfiction in 2025:

Rachel Nolan

A focused, extensively reported study of how, between 1977 and 2007, Guatemala became the second largest source of foreign adoptions in the world, a breeding ground for racism, greed and exploitation.

The Jury

Mark Whitaker(Chair)

Writer/Journalist, New York City

Sonali Deraniyagala

Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

James Forman Jr.

J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law, Yale University

David Frum

Staff Writer, The Atlantic

Sarah Schulman

Ralla Klepak Professor of English, Northwestern University

Winners in General Nonfiction

Nathan Thrall

A finely reported and intimate account of life under Israeli occupation of the West Bank, told through a portrait of a Palestinian father whose five-year-old son dies in a fiery school bus crash when Israeli and Palestinian rescue teams are delayed by security regulations.

Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

An intimate, riveting portrait of an ordinary man whose fatal encounter with police officers in 2020 sparked an international movement for social change, but whose humanity and complicated personal story were unknown. (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.)

Andrea Elliott

An affecting, deeply reported account of a girl who comes of age during New York City’s homeless crisis–a portrait of resilience amid institutional failure that successfully merges literary narrative with policy analysis.

David Zucchino

A gripping account of the overthrow of the elected government of a Black-majority North Carolina city after Reconstruction that untangles a complicated set of power dynamics cutting across race, class and gender.

2025 Prize Winners

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For chronicling political and personal shifts of the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.