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 as follows:
JOURNALISM
PUBLIC SERVICE
Winner: The Washington Post
Finalists:
The Wall Street Journal, for work led by Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo
Chicago Tribune
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING
Winner: 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
Winner: 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
Winner: 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
Winner: Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham of Reuters
Finalists:
Nick Miroff of The Atlantic
Hamed Aleaziz of The New York Times
LOCAL REPORTING (2 PRIZES)
Winner: Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk of The Connecticut Mirror and Sophie Chou and Haru Coryne of ProPublica
Winner: 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
Winner: Staff of Reuters, notably Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler and Mike Spector
Finalists:
Staff of Bloomberg
Staff of The Washington Post
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
Winner: 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
Winner: Aaron Parsley of Texas Monthly
Finalists:
Emily Baumgaertner Nunn of The New York Times
Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker
CRITICISM
Winner: Mark Lamster of The Dallas Morning News
Finalists:
Michael J. Lewis of The Wall Street Journal
Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker
OPINION WRITING
Finalists:
Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times
Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times
ILLUSTRATED REPORTING AND COMMENTARY
Winner: 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
Winner: Saher Alghorra, contributor, The New York Times
Finalists:
Photography Staff of the Los Angeles Times
Photography Staff of Reuters
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Winner: Jahi Chikwendiu of The Washington Post
Finalists:
Photography Staff of The New York Times
Gabrielle Lurie of the San Francisco Chronicle
AUDIO REPORTING
Winner: 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
BOOKS, DRAMA AND MUSIC
FICTION
Winner: "Angel Down,” by Daniel Kraus (Atria Books)
Finalists:
“Audition,” by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books)
“Stag Dance: A Quartet,” by Torrey Peters (Random House)
DRAMA
Winner: "Liberation,” by Bess Wohl
Finalists:
“Bowl EP,” by Nazareth Hassan
“Meet the Cartozians,” by Talene Monahon
HISTORY
Winner: "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
Winner: "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
Winner: "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
Winner: "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
Winner: "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
Winner: "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
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