2025 Pulitzer Prize
The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on May 5, 2025 by the Pulitzer Prize Board for works created during the 2024 calendar year.
Prizes
Winners and finalists for the prizes are listed below, with the winners marked in bold.Journalism
| Breaking News Reporting |
| Staff of The Washington Post, "for urgent and illuminating coverage of the July 13 attempt to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, including detailed story-telling and sharp analysis that coupled traditional police reporting with audio and visual forensics." |
| Staff of the Associated Press, "for fast, comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, including vivid details from the scene followed by the first reporting on gaps in security measures by the Secret Service and local law enforcement." |
| Staff of the The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, "for collaborating on comprehensive and community-focused reporting on Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 200 people and damaged 70,000 homes and businesses in the western part of the state." |
| Explanatory Reporting |
| Azam Ahmed, Matthieu Aikins, contributing writer, and Christina Goldbaum of The New York Times, "for an authoritative examination of how the United States sowed the seeds of its own failure in Afghanistan, primarily by supporting murderous militia that drove civilians to the Taliban." |
| Alexia Campbell, April Simpson and Pratheek Rebala of the Center for Public Integrity; Nadia Hamdan of Reveal; and Roy Hurst, contributor, Mother Jones, "for using innovative technology, archival research and personal storytelling to reveal how land titles granted to formerly enslaved Black men and women in the wake of the Civil War were unjustly revoked." |
| Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller of ProPublica, "for a deep and haunting examination of how insurance companies quietly, and with little public scrutiny, deny mental health services to those in need." |
| National Reporting |
| Staff of The Wall Street Journal, "for chronicling political and personal shifts of the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin." |
| Jennifer Gollan and Susie Neilson of the San Francisco Chronicle, "for an immersive and revelatory series that exposed the soaring death toll tied to police pursuits and detailed the near-total immunity that shields officers who initiate deadly chases." |
| Staff of The Washington Post, "for a sweeping examination of the human and environmental toll of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, including stories about the arrival of conspiracy theorists in one town and the efforts of residents of another to rebuild three months later." |
| Feature Writing |
| Mark Warren, contributor, Esquire, "for a sensitive portrait of a Baptist pastor and small town mayor who died by suicide after his secret digital life was exposed by a right-wing news site." |
| Anand Gopal, contributing writer, The New Yorker, "for deeply reported narrative of a woman’s life before and after she is imprisoned at an isolated detention camp in eastern Syria, illustrating how love and family intersect with larger geopolitical concerns." |
| Joe Sexton, contributor, The Marshall Project, "for his exclusive inside account of a legal team’s efforts to spare the Parkland high school shooter from the death penalty, a saga of moral complexity, constitutional law and shattering trauma for those involved." |
| Criticism |
| Alexandra Lange, contributing writer, Bloomberg CityLab, "for graceful and genre-expanding writing about public spaces for families, deftly using interviews, observations and analysis to consider the architectural components that allow children and communities to thrive." |
| Sara Holdren of New York Magazine, "for insightful theater criticism that combines a reporter's eye and a historian's memory to inform readers about current stage productions." |
| Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker, "for illuminating and personal reviews of work that appears on television, streaming services or social media, trenchant criticism that explores contemporary issues and society." |
| Illustrated Reporting and Commentary |
| Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post, "for delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years." |
| Ernesto Barbieri and Jess Ruliffson, contributors, The Boston Globe, "for ‘True Stories From an ICU,’ a beautiful, funny and frequently haunting depiction of the fragility of human life, with each frame perfectly paced over a seamless scroll." |
| Iran Martinez, Steve Breen, Jamie Self and Giovanni Moujaes of inewsource.org, San Diego, "for ‘Fentanyl: A Decade of Death,’ which deftly weaves hard data and human stories with effective metaphors to create a powerful visual narrative for a national audience and the local San Diego readership." |
| Feature Photography |
| Moises Saman, contributor, The New Yorker, "for his haunting black and white images of Sednaya prison in Syria that capture the traumatic legacy of Assad’s torture chambers, forcing viewers to confront the raw horrors faced by prisoners and contemplate the scars on society. " |
| Lynsey Addario, contributor, The New York Times, "for her sensitive and wrenching photo essay of a young Ukrainian girl with a rare eye cancer whose treatment was thwarted by the war." |
| Photography Staff of Associated Press, "for their brave and gripping imagery from Gaza that steps back from the front lines to chronicle daily life as it continues in a war zone." |
Books, drama, and music
| Drama |
| Purpose, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins |
| Oh, Mary!, by Cole Escola |
| The Ally, by Itamar Moses |
| History |
| Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War, by Edda L. Fields-Black |
| Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, by Kathleen DuVal |
| Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery, by Seth Rockman |
| Memoir or Autobiography |
| Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls |
| Fi: A Memoir of My Son, by Alexandra Fuller |
| I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, by Lucy Sante |
| Poetry |
| New and Selected Poems, by Marie Howe |
| An Authentic Life, by Jennifer Chang |
| Bluff: Poems, by Danez Smith |
| General Nonfiction |
| To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, by Benjamin Nathans |
| I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist’s Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India, by Rollo Romig |
| Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala, by Rachel Nolan |
| Music |
| Sky Islands, by Susie Ibarra |
| Jim is Still Crowing, by Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson |
| The Comet, by George Lewis |