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Board lander photo
Board lander photo caption

front row (sitting) left to right: E. Ramshaw, N. Brown, T. Shelby, M. Miller; back row left to right: C. Lozada, N. Barnes, V. T. Nguyen, K. Lytle Hernández, A. Applebaum, J. Cobb (on screen; attending virtually), K. Merida, N. Carroll, S. Chan, D. Remnick (slightly behind S. Chan), G. Escobar, G. Thompson (slightly behind G. Escobar) and E. Alexander (absent: M. Shafik). (Photo by Jose R. Lopez)

Board Lander Sub Title
Neil Brown and Tommie Shelby, co-chairs; Marjorie Miller, administrator

Staff of The Washington Post

Citation
For its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it also was entered and nominated.)
Tags: 2024
Categories: National Reporting

Siddharth Kara

Publication
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Citation
A powerful examination of mining operations in the Southeastern Congo that reveals a global system of modern-day slavery, and the inhumane, often deadly working conditions for the men, women and children who extract the rare metal required for smartphones, computers and electric vehicles.
Publisher
St. Martin’s Press
Tags: 2024
Categories: General Nonfiction

Nathan Thrall

Citation
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.
Tags: 2024
Categories: General Nonfiction
Publisher
Metropolitan Books
Publication
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

John Vaillant

Publication
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
Citation
An unsparing account of the rapacious Alberta Sands fire, fueled by an overheated atmosphere, dry forest and omnipresent petroleum products, that consumed the town of Fort McMurray at the heart of Canada’s oil industry, which brings the global crisis of carbon emissions and climate change into urgent relief.
Publisher
Knopf
Tags: 2024
Categories: General Nonfiction

Brandon Som

Citation
A collection that deeply engages with the complexities of the poet’s dual Mexican and Chinese heritage, highlighting the dignity of his family’s working lives, creating community rather than conflict.
Tags: 2024
Categories: Poetry
Publisher
Georgia Review Books
Publication
Tripas: Poems

Robyn Schiff

Publication
Information Desk: An Epic
Citation
Poetry that chronicles the oddities, indignities, and wonders of working at a museum, a vivid compendium of musings on the nature of art and its creation.
Publisher
Penguin Books
Tags: 2024
Categories: Poetry

Jorie Graham

Publication
To 2040
Citation
A fluent yet spare volume about grief, loss and vulnerability through an array of themes, including environmental disaster and personal mortality.
Publisher
Copper Canyon Press
Tags: 2024
Categories: Poetry

Jonathan Rosen

Publication
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
Citation
An account of the author’s brilliant childhood best friend and fellow student who was diagnosed as schizophrenic before fatally stabbing his girlfriend, a tragedy used to explore mental illness and the history of institutionalization.
Publisher
Penguin Press
Tags: 2024
Categories: Memoir or Autobiography

Andrew Leland

Publication
The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight
Citation
An emotionally resonant account by an author losing his eyesight from a rare genetic disorder, a memoir that explores the physical and conceptual experience of blindness, and that explains honestly how ableism fueled his reticence to accept his diagnosis.
Publisher
Penguin Press
Tags: 2024
Categories: Memoir or Autobiography

Cristina Rivera Garza

Citation
A genre-bending account of the author’s 20-year-old sister, murdered by a former boyfriend, that mixes memoir, feminist investigative journalism and poetic biography stitched together with a determination born of loss.
Tags: 2024
Categories: Memoir or Autobiography
Publisher
Hogarth
Publication
Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
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