2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced for Journalism, the Arts
NEW YORK – The Pulitzer Prizes recognizing the best in journalism and the arts in 2022 were announced on Monday. The Associated Press has compiled a list of honorees in journalism, arts and letters, along with hyperlinks to their award-winning works.
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PUBLIC SERVICE: Mstyslav Chernov, Lori Hinnant, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko, The Associated Press
The AP quartet of reporters won for what the Pulitzers described as “brave reporting” from the besieged city of Mariupol on the massacre of civilians during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. You can find a list of stories produced by the team on our “Erasing Mariupol” page.
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING: The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times staffers released a secretly taped conversation between Los Angeles city officials that included racist comments, and then followed up with in-depth coverage of the aftermath.
INVESTIGATION REPORT: The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s “Capital Assets” series analyzed the investments of approximately 12,000 federal officials and their families between 2016 and 2021. The Journal collected and analyzed data on approximately 850,000 financial assets and more than 315,000 transactions. This was a personal reward.
EXPLANATORY REPORT: Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic
The Atlantic’s Caitlin Dickerson conducted more than 150 interviews as part of an 18-month investigation into former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on separating children at the border.
LOCAL REPORTING: John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald and Challen Stephens, AL.com; Anna Wolfe, Mississippi Today
There were two winners; they do not share the category, but instead receive the full $15,000 prize amount. Reporters from AL.com, Birmingham, won for a series of stories exposing how police forces in the town of Brookside prey on residents to raise revenue. The reporting freed people from jail, the outlet said, and led to resignations and new laws.
Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe’s series “The Backchannel” detailed how state officials misspent millions of welfare dollars that were supposed to help some of the poorest people in the United States. In one case, Wolfe wrote about how former Governor Phil Bryant and NFL legend Brett Favre worked together to channel at least $5 million of state welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi , where Favre’s daughter played the sport.
NATIONAL RELATIONS: Caroline Kitchener, The Washington Post
Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post wrote about the aftermath of life after the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, including stories of women trying to deal with the consequences.
INTERNATIONAL REPORTS: The New York Times
The New York Times staffer won for coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including an investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the city of Bucha.
ARTICLE WRITING: Eli Saslow, The Washington Post
Eli Saslow won for what the Pulitzers called “evocative individual narratives” about people grappling with the pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality in the United States. Saslow has since left the Post, joining The New York Times in February. According to the Times announcement, he had been a finalist in this category three times before and had already won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting.
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPH: The Associated Press
A team of AP photographers won the Pulitzer for “unique and urgent” images from the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While it was a personal award, AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham wrote that the award is shared between Rodrigo Abd, Bernat Armangue, Felipe Dana, Nariman El-Mofty, Vadim Ghirda, Evgeniy Maloletka and Emilio Morenatti. See a photo gallery of their work here.
PHOTOSHOOT: Christina House, Los Angeles Times
Christina House of the Los Angeles Times won for “an intimate look” into the life of a 22-year-old pregnant woman living on the streets in a tent. She was part of a series called “Hollywood’s Finest,” a look into the lives of three homeless women.
COMMENT: Kyle Whitmire, AL.com
Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham, won for “State of Denial,” a series of what the Pulitzers called “measured and persuasive columns” documenting how Alabama’s Confederate heritage still persists.
CRITICISM: Andrea Long Chu, New York magazine
New York magazine’s Andrea Long Chu won for book reviews that employ “multiple cultural lenses” to explore social issues, the Pulitzers said.
EDITORIAL WRITING: Nancy Ancrum, Amy Driscoll, Luisa Yanez, Isadora Rangel and Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald
The Miami Herald writers won for “Broken Promises,” a series of op-eds about the failure of Florida public officials to deliver long-promised taxpayer-funded services and amenities to residents.
ILLUSTRATED REPORT AND COMMENT: Mona Chalabi, The New York Times
New York Times contributor Mona Chalabi won for illustrations that combine statistical reporting with analysis to help readers understand the immense wealth and economic power of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
This award replaced the editorial comics award last year, right on the heels of Pulitzer judges refusing to name a winner for editorial comics in 2021.
AUDIO JOURNALISM: Gimlet Media, especially Connie Walker
The award went to Gimlet Media staff, specifically Connie Walker, whose “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” investigation into her father’s troubled past revealed a larger story of the abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children at a residential school in Canada.
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FICTION: “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver; “Trust” by Hernan Diaz
The two novels each won the fiction award. “Demon Copperhead” is what the Pulitzers called a “masterful reworking of ‘David Copperfield,'” set in Appalachia. The quote described “Trust” as “compelling” and “a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king”.
DRAMA: “English” by Sanaz Toossi
Sanaz Toossi’s “English” is a “quietly powerful comedy,” the Pulitzers said, centering on four adults preparing for an English exam near Tehran, Iran. Classroom drama explores the ways in which language shapes identity, experience, and a sense of belonging in the world.
According to the Pulitzer website, this award’s judging panel attends plays in New York and regional theaters — while the award goes to the playwright, the plays’ actual productions are considered.
US HISTORY: “Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power,” by Jefferson Cowie
Jefferson Cowie won the history award for a book that the Pulitzers describe as “a resounding account of an Alabama county in the 19th and 20th centuries shaped by colonialism and settler slavery” that illustrates the evolution of white supremacy.
Generally speaking, this is the only arts and letters award – books, music, drama – that can be awarded to someone who is not a US citizen (but the book must be a US history).
OVERALL NONFICTION: “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Fight for Racial Justice,” by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
The book by two Washington Post reporters is what the Pulitzers called an “intimate and compelling portrait” of George Floyd, the man whose 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer sparked an international movement for racial justice. The Pulitzer Board moved it out of the biography category, a release said.
BIOGRAPHY: “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,” by Beverly Gage
The award was given to the “deeply researched and nuanced” biography of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, according to the citation.
MEMOIR OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY: “Stay True” by Hua Hsu
Hua Hsu’s memoir won this category for “an elegant and poignant coming-of-age story,” the Pulitzers said.
POETRY: “Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020”, by Carl Phillips
Carl Phillips’ poem won for what the Pulitzers called “a masterful collection of American culture.”
MUSIC: “Omar”, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel
“Omar” is a groundbreaking and compelling work about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries,” the Pulitzers said. It premiered last May at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.
To award the music competition prize, the site states that the jury meets in New York to listen to the recordings and study the scores.
