Each year, Columbia University awards Pulitzer Prizes for excellence in American journalism, arts and letters. The prestigious awards were established in 1917 by the will of newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, who also funded the Columbia School of Journalism.
This year, a total of 23 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in various categories ranging from Investigative Reporting to Fiction. Narrowing our focus to books, keep scrolling to find out which books won the esteemed prize.
Fiction
James: A Novel
Huckleberry Finn’s journey by raft down the Mississippi River is reimagined, this time from the perspective of Jim, his enslaved companion.
“To call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book, but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament. . . Genius.” —The Atlantic
History
COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War
The story of the Combahee River Raid: an 1863 expedition led by Harriet Tubman behind Confederate lines, which torched eight rice plantations and liberated 730 people.
"A scholarly and remarkable work...Readers will gain a deeper understanding of that era's times and experiences, and Fields Black's connection to one of the participants makes it a personal work as well." —Library Journal
History
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
This sweeping overview of 1,000 years of Native American history delves into their complex and ever evolving social structures before, during, and after the arrival of Europeans.
“Both majestic in scope and intimate in tone. . . . No single volume can adequately depict the gamut of Indigenous cultures, but DuVal's comes close.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Biography
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
A dual biography of Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon, 18th-century rivals who dedicated themselves to the same formidable goal of identifying and describing all life on Earth.
“[An] engaging and thought-provoking book, one focused on the theatrical politics and often deeply troubling science that shape our definitions of life on Earth.” —The New York Times
Memoir or Autobiography
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
Tracing Chinese history across three generations of women—her grandmother, mother, and herself—the author investigates trauma, grief, exile, identity, and love in both words and images with her acclaimed debut graphic memoir.
“From start to finish, this book is a revelation . . . A work that glimmers with insight, acumen, and an unwillingness to settle for simple answers.” ―Kirkus Reviews
Poetry
New and Selected Poems
Drawing on four decades of work, this collection of poetry unveils the profound human experiences that can be found in everyday, seemingly mundane moments.
“Marie Howe is writing some of the most devastating and devastatingly true poems of her career―and some of the best being written by anyone…Howe is the rare poet whose poems one wants to hug closely for company, companionship, and empathy; and yet they are works of literature of the highest order…” ―NPR
General Nonfiction
To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause (Pulitzer Prize Winner): The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
A definitive history of the dissident movement that emerged in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and the vital struggle to break free of totalitarianism.
"To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause offers refreshingly clear-eyed insights into the idiosyncratic world of those who fought for freedom behind the Iron Curtain. . . . A host of original insights, shedding light on a remarkable cast of individuals who never succumbed to political apathy at a time when most did." —The Telegraph
Source: The Pulitzer Prizes
