Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction · 2025 · Winner
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Complete History
2020s
- 2025To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement — Benjamin Nathans
- 2024A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy — Nathan Thrall
- 2023His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice — Robert Samuels
- 2022Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City — Andrea Elliott
- 2021Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy — David Zucchino
- 2020The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America — Greg Grandin
2010s
- 2019Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America — Eliza Griswold
- 2018Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America — James Forman Jr.
- 2017Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City — Matthew Desmond
- 2016Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS — Joby Warrick
- 2015The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History — Elizabeth Kolbert
- 2014Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation — Dan Fagin
- 2013Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America — Gilbert King
- 2012The Swerve: How the World Became Modern — Stephen Greenblatt
- 2011The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer — Siddhartha Mukherjee
About the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is awarded annually for a distinguished and appropriately documented book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category. Administered by Columbia University, it is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The prize carries a cash award of $15,000 and a certificate. The category was established in 1962 to recognize the broad range of nonfiction writing that does not fall neatly into biography, history, or other specific categories. It has since recognized some of the most important works of reportage, science writing, social commentary, and cultural criticism produced in America. Two authors have won multiple prizes in this category: Barbara W. Tuchman (1963 and 1972) and Edward O. Wilson (1979 and 1991). The award reflects the Pulitzer Board's commitment to honoring nonfiction that illuminates the human condition through rigorous research and compelling prose. Finalists are announced alongside the winner, typically two or three additional titles that were under serious consideration, giving readers a broader view of the year's most distinguished nonfiction. The prize is announced each spring, usually in May, following deliberation by a jury and the full Pulitzer Board at Columbia University. Eligible works must have been published during the previous calendar year by an American author.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The prize is open to American authors who publish a distinguished, appropriately documented book of nonfiction during the calendar year, provided the work is not eligible for any other Pulitzer category such as History or Biography.
- Winners receive $15,000 and a certificate. Finalists receive certificates but no cash prize.
- Winners are announced each spring, typically in May, by the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University.
- A jury of distinguished journalists, authors, and scholars reviews submitted works and nominates finalists to the Pulitzer Board, which makes the final selection.
- No. Books eligible for History or Biography categories are generally entered in those more specific categories. General Nonfiction is intended for works that do not fit neatly into the other nonfiction categories.
- Yes. Barbara W. Tuchman won in 1963 and 1972, and Edward O. Wilson won in 1979 and 1991.
- Yes. Co-authored books are eligible, and the prize is shared between authors. For example, in 2023 the prize was awarded jointly to Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa.