2022 Pulitzer Prize
The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2021 calendar year on May 9, 2022. The awards highlighted coverage of major stories in the U.S. that year, including the January 6 United States Capitol attack, for which The Washington Post won the Public Service prize, considered the most prestigious award. The New York Times received three awards, the most of any publication. Insider received its first Pulitzer.
The Editorial Cartooning prize was superseded in 2022 by the revamped category of Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. No winner was selected in the former category in 2021, which drew controversy.
Prizes
Winners and finalists for the prizes are listed below, with the winners marked in bold.Journalism
| Breaking News Reporting |
| Staff of the Miami Herald, "for its urgent yet sweeping coverage of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex, merging clear and compassionate writing with comprehensive news and accountability reporting." |
| Staff of the Los Angeles Times, "for deeply sourced and detailed reporting about a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust that moved beyond the day's events to a larger consideration of labor and safety concerns in the film industry." |
| Staff of The New York Times, "for its aggressive and revelatory reporting about the attack on Washington on January 6, 2021, delivered as the events were unfolding and afterwards." |
| Explanatory Reporting |
| Staff of Quanta Magazine, New York, N.Y., notably Natalie Wolchover, "for coverage that revealed the complexities of building the James Webb Space Telescope, designed to facilitate groundbreaking astronomical and cosmological research." |
| Staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer, "for a richly reported series that, with compelling writing and photography, tackled the complex roots of gun violence in the city, centering on the people and communities most affected by it." |
| Staff of The Wall Street Journal, "for stories that vividly reconstructed the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and illuminated its enduring effects, describing how the destruction of Black wealth and property burdened future generations." |
| National Reporting |
| Staff of The New York Times, "for an ambitious project that quantified a disturbing pattern of fatal traffic stops by police, illustrating how hundreds of deaths could have been avoided and how officers typically avoided punishment." |
| Eli Hager of The Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro, contributor, of National Public Radio, "for powerful reporting that exposed how local government agencies throughout America quietly pocketed Social Security benefits intended for children in foster care." |
| Staff of The Washington Post, "for a sweeping series on environmental racism, illuminating how American communities of color have disproportionately suffered for decades from dirty air, polluted water and lax or nonexistent environmental protection." |
| Feature Writing |
| Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic, "For an unflinching portrait of a family's reckoning with loss in the 20 years since 9/11, masterfully braiding the author's personal connection to the story with sensitive reporting that reveals the long reach of grief." |
| Anand Gopal, contributing writer, The New Yorker, "for his account, published shortly after the U.S. announced its departure from Afghanistan, of Afghan women who have been forgotten in the dominant narrative about the war." |
| Meribah Knight of WPLN, contributor, and Ken Armstrong of ProPublica, "for their enterprising and empathetic account of 11 Black children in Tennessee who were arrested for a crime that doesn't exist." |
| Criticism |
| Salamishah Tillet of The New York Times, "For learned and stylish writing about Black stories in art and popular culture–work that successfully bridges academic and nonacademic critical discourse." |
| Peter Schjeldahl of The New Yorker, "for accessible and dedicated art criticism that introduces or revisits painters, institutions and movements, offering tender appreciations and unflinching dissents." |
| Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic, "for articles that bring clarity and insight to questions concerning gender norms, feminism, and popular culture." |
| Illustrated Reporting and Commentary |
| Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, Josh Adams and Walt Hickey of Insider, "For using graphic reportage and the comics medium to tell a powerful yet intimate story of the Chinese oppression of the Uyghurs, making the issue accessible to a wider public." |
| Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post, "For succinct and layered cartoons covering a wide range of social and political topics with immediacy and impact." |
| Zoe Si, contributor, The New Yorker, "For cartoons that use simply drawn figures, inclusive representation and sharply observed punchlines to capture political realities and daily life during the pandemic, inviting reflection and empathy." |
| Feature Photography |
| Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui of Reuters, "for images of COVID's toll in India that balanced intimacy and devastation, while offering viewers a heightened sense of place." |
| Gabrielle Lurie of the San Francisco Chronicle, "for intimate and harrowing images of a mother's attempts to care for her homeless, drug-addicted daughter." |
| Photography Staff of Reuters, "for images of climate change collected around the globe, effectively portraying extreme and dangerous natural events as common and widespread threats to human life." |
Letters, drama, and music
| Music |
| Raven Chacon, Voiceless Mass |
| Seven Pillars, by Andy Akiho |
| with eyes the color of time, by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti |
| Poetry |
| frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss |
| Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten, by Will Alexander |
| Yellow Rain, by Mai Der Vang |
| Biography |
| Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South, by the late Winfred Rembert as told to Erin I. Kelly |
| 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 |
Special citation
A special citation was awarded to the journalists of Ukraine for their coverage of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The citation reads:Reception
Tom Jones of Poynter was unsurprised by the recognition of The New York Times and The Washington Post, which he described as "what seems like an annual rite of passage". He highlighted the success of local outlets such as the Tampa Bay Times and said Quanta MagazineRemarking on the new category of Illustrated Reporting and Commentary, The Beat writer Heidi MacDonald said that the revamped category "says much about the state of media and cartooning", and "gives room to consider longer works... even on beyond to TikTok, in theory".
On May 11, 2022, two days after Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times photojournalist Marcus Yam for their coverage of the regime change in Afghanistan, The Diplomat published an article criticizing media coverage of the country and noted that violence was in fact rising in Afghanistan, stating "Afghanistan may have fallen out of international headlines, but violent trends are once again on the rise" and that there was currently "intense infighting between various Taliban factions and interests." Data collected by The Diplomat's affiliates at Afghan Peace Watch and Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project showed that violence in Afghanistan escalated between September 2021 and March 2022. The same day, American Prospect reporter Emran Feroz stated that "the War on Terror continues" and noted that foreign drones were still operating in the country.