PUBLIC SERVICE
The Washington Post
The Pulitzer committee honored The Post with the prestigious public service award for its “compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Finalists Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; The New York Times
BREAKING NEWS
The staff of The Miami Herald
The Herald won the award for its “urgent yet sweeping” coverage of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Fla.
Finalists Staff of The Los Angeles Times; staff of The New York Times
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington, and Eli Murray of The Tampa Bay Times
A multipart investigation of toxic hazards inside Florida’s only battery recycling plant was a “compelling exposé,” the committee said, and it led to safety measures to protect workers and residents.
Finalists Jeffrey Meitrodt and Nicole Norfleet of The Star Tribune of Minneapolis; Hannah Dreier and Andrew Ba Tran of The Washington Post
EXPLANATORY REPORTING
The staff of Quanta Magazine, notably Natalie Wolchover
Quanta’s coverage of the James Webb Space Telescope showed how it would facilitate groundbreaking astronomical research.
Finalists Staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer; staff of The Wall Street Journal
LOCAL REPORTING
Madison Hopkins of the Better Government Association and Cecilia Reyes of The Chicago Tribune
The reporters examined Chicago’s long history of failed building code and fire safety code enforcement, which let landlords commit violations resulting in dozens of unnecessary deaths.
Finalists Tony Cook, Johnny Magdaleno, and Michelle Pemberton of The Indianapolis Star; Lulu Ramadan of The Palm Beach Post; and Ash Ngu, Maya Miller, and Nadia Sussman of ProPublica
NATIONAL REPORTING
Staff of The New York Times
Times reporters quantified a pattern of fatal traffic stops by the police. Officers typically avoided punishment.
Finalists Eli Hager of the Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro, contributor, of National Public Radio; staff of The Washington Post
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
Staff of The New York Times
The committee cited “courageous and relentless reporting that exposed the vast civilian toll of U.S.-led airstrikes, challenging official accounts of American military engagements in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.”
Finalists Staff of The New York Times; Yaroslav Trofimov and the staff of The Wall Street Journal
FEATURE WRITING
Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic
Ms. Senior’s portrait of a family’s reckoning with loss in the two decades since the Sept. 11 terror attacks won for “masterfully braiding the author’s personal connection to the story with sensitive reporting that reveals the long reach of grief.”
Finalists Anand Gopal, contributing writer for The New Yorker; Meribah Knight of WPLN and Ken Armstrong of ProPublica
COMMENTARY
Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star
For “persuasive columns demanding justice” for those who accused a retired police detective of being a sexual predator.
Finalists Julian Aguon, The Atlantic; Zeynep Tufekci
CRITICISM
Salamishah Tillet, contributing critic at large, The New York Times
For “learned and stylish writing about Black stories in art and popular culture.” Read the essays here.
Finalists Peter Schjeldahl of The New Yorker; Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic
EDITORIAL WRITING
Lisa Falkenberg, Michael Lindenberger, Joe Holley and Luis Carrasco of The Houston Chronicle
The editorials revealed voter suppression tactics and rejected the myth of widespread voter fraud, the committee said.
Finalists Abdallah Fayyad of The Boston Globe; editorial staff of The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
ILLUSTRATED REPORTING AND COMMENTARY
Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, Josh Adams, and Walt Hickey of Insider
The winning work used graphic reporting and the comics medium to tell a story of the Chinese oppression of Uyghurs.
Finalists Zoe Si, contributor at The New Yorker; Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
Win McNamee, Drew Angerer, Spencer Platt, Samuel Corum, and Jon Cherry of Getty Images; Marcus Yam of The Los Angeles Times
This year’s breaking news photography category had two winners. The Getty team won for images of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Marcus Yam for “raw and urgent images of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan.”
Finalist Anonymous, a freelance contributor for The New York Times
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave, and Danish Siddiqui of Reuters
For images of Covid-19’s toll in India that “balanced intimacy and devastation.”
Finalists Photography staff of Reuters; Gabrielle Lurie of The San Francisco Chronicle
AUDIO REPORTING
Staffs of Futuro Media and PRX
For “Suave,” a seven-episode podcast that profiled a man re-entering society after serving more than 30 years in prison.
Finalists Eyder Peralta, Solomon Fisseha, Alsanosi Adam and Halima Athumani of NPR; Mike Hixenbaugh, Antonia Hylton, Frannie Kelley, Reid Cherlin and Julie Shapiro of NBC News
SPECIAL CITATIONS AND AWARDS
The Journalists of Ukraine
For their “courage, endurance and commitment to truthful reporting during Vladimir Putin’s ruthless invasion of their country.”
FICTION
‘The Netanyahus,’ by Joshua Cohen
Mr. Cohen’s book imagines a college job interview in the 1950s for Benzion Netanyahu, academic and father of the future Israeli prime minister. The novel explores themes of Jewishness and diaspora as Netanyahu’s fatalistic view of Jewish history bumps up against that of the narrator, an assimilated American Jewish professor.
Finalists “Monkey Boy,” by Francisco Goldman; “Palmares,” by Gayl Jones
HISTORY
‘Covered With Night,’ by Nicole Eustace, and ‘Cuba: An American History,’ by Ada Ferrer
Ms. Eustace’s book, a finalist for the National Book Award, explores how the 1722 killing of an Indigenous hunter profoundly influenced the American justice system.
Spanning more than 500 years, Ms. Ferrer’s account traces Cuba’s colonial history, revolutions, and cultural shifts, with a focus on its relationship with the United States.
Finalist “Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, From the Revolution to Reconstruction,” by Kate Masur
BIOGRAPHY
‘Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South,’ by Winfred Rembert, as told to Erin I. Kelly
This memoir, which was told by a Tufts University philosopher, blends Mr. Rembert’s life story with his artwork. In images and in Mr. Rembert’s own words before he died in March last year, the narrative recounts his life in the Jim Crow-era Deep South, his close escape from an attempted lynching in Georgia, his time in prison working on chain gangs, and his late-in-life discovery of his artistic talent.
Finalists “Pessoa: A Biography,” by Richard Zenith; “The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women — and Women to Medicine,” by Janice P. Nimura
POETRY
‘frank: sonnets,’ by Diane Seuss
Ms. Seuss has described this collection, her fifth, as a memoir composed of sonnets, with poems that touch on death, birth, loss, and addiction. The collection also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Voelcker Award.
Finalists “Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten,” by Will Alexander; “Yellow Rain,” by Mai Der Vang
GENERAL NONFICTION
‘Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City,’ by Andrea Elliott
Ms. Elliott’s intimately reported book expands on her acclaimed 2013 series for The Times about Dasani Coates, a homeless New York schoolgirl, and her family. In addition to a portrait of the family, it’s about a city and country that have repeatedly failed to address the issues of poverty and addiction.
Finalists “Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back From Extremism,” by Carla Power; “The Family Roe: An American Story,” by Joshua Prager
DRAMA
‘Fat Ham,’ by James Ijames
A comedic riff on “Hamlet,” set at a barbecue, this play is about a Black, gay, Southern man whose father’s ghost urges him to avenge his death. The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia streamed a virtual production last year; the first in-person production is set to begin previews at the Public Theater in New York on Thursday.
Finalists “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord,” by Kristina Wong; “Selling Kabul,” by Sylvia Khoury
MUSIC
‘Voiceless Mass,’ by Raven Chacon
This site-specific work, for organ and ensemble, was commissioned for the group Present Music’s Thanksgiving concert in Milwaukee. Mr. Chacon, a member of the Navajo Nation, has said he makes a point not to present his art on that holiday but made an exception. The piece, however, was fitting for the occasion, and the church in which it premiered: It is an exploration of gathering spaces, their history, and the land they occupy. It considers, Mr. Chacon wrote, “the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power.”
Finalists “Seven Pillars,” by Andy Akiho; “with eyes the color of time,” by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti