Announcement of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winners
The 2019 Pulitzer Prize winners in 14 journalism and seven letters, drama and music categories were announced on Monday, April 15 at 3 p.m. Eastern. Two special citations were also awarded.
The 2019 Prize winners are:
Journalism
Public Service
For exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For immersive, compassionate coverage of the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief.
Investigative Reporting
Matt Hamilton, Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times
For consequential reporting on a University of Southern California gynecologist accused of violating hundreds of young women for more than a quarter-century.
Explanatory Reporting
David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times
For an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges.
Local Reporting
Staff of The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.
For a damning portrayal of the state’s discriminatory conviction system, including a Jim Crow-era law, that enabled Louisiana courts to send defendants to jail without jury consensus on the accused’s guilt.
National Reporting
Staff of The Wall Street Journal
For uncovering President Trump’s secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him, and the web of supporters who facilitated the transactions, triggering criminal inquiries and calls for impeachment.
International Reporting
Maggie Michael, Maad al-Zikry and Nariman El-Mofty of Associated Press
For a revelatory yearlong series detailing the atrocities of the war in Yemen, including theft of food aid, deployment of child soldiers and torture of prisoners.
Staff of Reuters, with notable contributions from Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo
For expertly exposing the military units and Buddhist villagers responsible for the systematic expulsion and murder of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, courageous coverage that landed its reporters in prison.
Feature Writing
For a series of powerful, intimate narratives that followed Salvadoran immigrants on New York’s Long Island whose lives were shattered by a botched federal crackdown on the international criminal gang MS-13.
Commentary
Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For bold columns that exposed the malfeasance and injustice of forcing poor rural Missourians charged with misdemeanor crimes to pay unaffordable fines or be sent to jail.
Criticism
Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post
For trenchant and searching reviews and essays that joined warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.
Editorial Writing
Brent Staples of The New York Times
For editorials written with extraordinary moral clarity that charted the racial fault lines in the United States at a polarizing moment in the nation’s history.
Editorial Cartooning
For beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.
Breaking News Photography
Feature Photography
Lorenzo Tugnoli of The Washington Post
For brilliant photo storytelling of the tragic famine in Yemen, shown through images in which beauty and composure are intertwined with devastation. (Moved by the jury from Breaking News Photography, where it was originally entered.)
Letters, Drama and Music
Fiction
The Overstory, by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton)
An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them.
Drama
Fairview, by Jackie Sibblies Drury
A hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices.
History
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon & Schuster)
A breathtaking history that demonstrates the scope of Frederick Douglass’ influence through deep research on his writings, his intellectual evolution and his relationships.
Biography
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press)
A panoramic view of the personal trials and artistic triumphs of the father of the Harlem Renaissance and the movement he inspired.
Poetry
Be With, by Forrest Gander (New Directions)
A collection of elegies that grapple with sudden loss, and the difficulties of expressing grief and yearning for the departed.
General Nonfiction
A classic American story, grippingly told, of an Appalachian family struggling to retain its middle class status in the shadow of destruction wreaked by corporate fracking.
Music
A bold new operatic work that uses sophisticated vocal writing and striking instrumental timbres to confront difficult subject matter: the effects of sexual and emotional abuse. Libretto by Roxie Perkins.
Special Citations
Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Md.
A special citation to honor the journalists, staff and editorial board of the Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief. The citation comes with a $100,000 bequest by the Pulitzer Board to be used to further the newspaper’s journalistic mission.
For her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.
