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Stephen Engelberg and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, co-chairs

Ed Yong of The Atlantic

Citation
For a series of lucid, definitive pieces on the COVID-19 pandemic that anticipated the course of the disease, synthesized the complex challenges the country faced, illuminated the U.S. government’s failures and provided clear and accessible context for the scientific and human challenges it posed.
Tags: 2021
Categories: Explanatory Reporting

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

Citation
For its unflinching, comprehensive and impactful coverage of the killing of Breonna Taylor and the legacy of systemic racism in the police force and other civic institutions in Louisville, which helped to spur important reforms.
Tags: 2021
Categories: Public Service

Sierra Crane Murdoch

Publication
Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country
Citation
A richly-layered story with an imperfect yet memorable protagonist battling corruption, greed and intergenerational trauma when a fracking oil boom collides with reservation life in North Dakota.
Publisher
Random House
Tags: 2021
Categories: General Nonfiction

Cathy Park Hong

Publication
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Citation
A captivating and insightful essay collection that provides an emotional consideration of racial consciousness, compelling readers to interrogate their
own ideas about our common humanity.
Publisher
One World/Random House
Tags: 2021
Categories: General Nonfiction

Carolyn Forché

Publication
In the Lateness of the World
Citation
Narrative lyrics resonant with imagery of beauty and horror that transcend the personal to offer a larger vision of our global condition.
Publisher
Penguin Press
Tags: 2021
Categories: Poetry

Natalie Diaz

Citation
A collection of tender, heart-wrenching and defiant poems that explore what it means to love and be loved in an America beset by conflict.
Tags: 2021
Categories: Poetry
Publisher
Graywolf Press
Publication
Postcolonial Love Poem

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

Publication
A Treatise on Stars
Citation
A book of meditative and expansive poems that illuminate the interconnectedness of life forms and the spirituality of our natural environment.
Publisher
New Directions
Tags: 2021
Categories: Poetry

Amy Stanley

Publication
Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World
Citation
An exquisitely written profile of a 19th century Japanese woman, reconstructed from hundreds of documents, that captures not only the arc of one life, but the society of the Edo period in transition.
Publisher
Scribner
Tags: 2021
Categories: Biography

the late Les Payne and Tamara Payne

Citation
A powerful and revelatory account of the civil rights activist, built from dozens of interviews, offering insight into his character, beliefs and the forces that shaped him.
Tags: 2021
Categories: Biography
Publisher
Liveright/Norton
Publication
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X