Pulitzer Prizes 2024 Winners Announced Celebrating Excellence in Journalism, Arts, and Music
The 2024 Pulitzer Prizes celebrate exceptional achievements in Journalism, Letters, Drama, and Music. This year's awards highlight the profound impact of dedicated storytelling and investigative journalism on society from a media and publishing industry under fire.
In Journalism, ProPublica received the Public Service award for exposing how influential billionaires wooed Supreme Court justices with lavish gifts, prompting the Court to adopt its first code of conduct. The finalists included KFF Health News and Cox Media Group for uncovering Social Security Administration overpayments and The Washington Post for examining the impact of AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.
The Breaking News Reporting prize went to the staff of Lookout Santa Cruz for their comprehensive coverage of catastrophic flooding and mudslides in California. The Honolulu Civil Beat staff and the Los Angeles Times staff were finalists for their coverage of the Maui wildfires and a Lunar New Year shooting, respectively.
Hannah Dreier of The New York Times won the Investigative Reporting award for her in-depth series on migrant child labor in the U.S. Finalists included Bloomberg staff for investigating global gun violence and STAT’s Casey Ross and Bob Herman for exposing AI's impact on healthcare decisions.
Sarah Stillman of The New Yorker received the Explanatory Reporting prize for highlighting the consequences of the felony murder charge on communities of color. Bloomberg staff and a joint team from The Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and FRONTLINE were finalists for their reports on corporate water profiteering and the Uvalde school shooting response, respectively.
In the Letters and Drama categories, the Fiction award went to Jayne Anne Phillips for "Night Watch," a novel set in post-Civil War West Virginia. The Drama award was given to Eboni Booth for "Primary Trust," a story about an emotionally damaged man finding a new sense of worth. Jacqueline Jones won the History prize for "No Right to an Honest Living," a study of Boston's Black workers in the Civil War era. Two biographies won in the Biography category: "King: A Life" by Jonathan Eig, and "Master Slave Husband Wife" by Ilyon Woo.
Cristina Rivera Garza won the Memoir or Autobiography category for "Liliana’s Invincible Summer," an account of her sister's murder and the pursuit of justice. The Poetry award went to Brandon Som for "Tripas: Poems." The General Nonfiction prize was awarded to Nathan Thrall for "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama," a portrait of life under Israeli occupation. The Music prize went to Tyshawn Sorey for "Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith)."
Special citations were awarded to the late writer and critic Greg Tate and to journalists covering the war in Gaza, recognizing their courageous work under perilous conditions.
