Congratulations to the book winners and finalists of the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes:
Fiction
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus (Atria Books). "A breathless novel of World War I, a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence."
Fiction finalists: Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books) and Stag Dance: A Quartet by Torrey Peters (Random House)
History
We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore (Liveright). "A lively and engaging narrative that investigates why the Constitution is so difficult to amend, including a review of noteworthy failed amendments proposed by marginalized groups."
History finalists: King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson (Doubleday) and Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and The Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield (W.W. Norton)
Biography
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vaill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). "A lively and detailed biography of two daughters of wealthy and influential Dutch landowners who colored our nation's history, using present tense to tell their story and past tense to chronicle the dramatic sweep of the American Revolution."
Biography finalists: True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen by Lance Richardson (Pantheon) and The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford by James McWilliams (University of Arkansas Press)
Memoir or autobiography
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). "A writer's deeply moving and revelatory account of losing her younger son to suicide a little more than six years after her older son died in the same manner, an austere and defiant memoir of acceptance that focuses on facts, language and the persistence of life."
Memoir or autobiography finalists: Clam Down: A Metamorphosis by Anelise Chen (One World), Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya (Random House), and I'll Tell You When I'm Home: A Memoir by Hala Alyan (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)
Poetry
Ars Poeticas by Juliana Spahr (Wesleyan University Press). "A collection in which the poet takes stock of her personal disillusionment, which she uses to interrogate her relationship to her art form, community and politics."
Poetry finalists: I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books) and The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems by Patricia Smith (Scribner)
General nonfiction
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (Crown). "A feat of reportage, analysis and storytelling focusing on the issues that have created a national crisis of family homelessness among the so-called working poor."
General nonfiction finalists: A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) and Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church by Kevin Sack (Crown)