Pulitzer Prize 2021 winners announced

The 2021 Pulitzer Prizes, journalism’s highest honor, were announced Friday after a historic year shaped by a nationwide racial justice reckoning, a polarizing presidential election and a devastating global pandemic, Forbes reports.

One big contender for a Pulitzer this year was The New York Times’ investigation of the income tax information former President Donald Trump kept from the public called “The President’s Taxes,” written by Scripps Howard Award and the George Polk Award winners Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire. Although that story didn’t take home a prize, The Times won the Public Service and Criticism Pulitzers for its extensive coronavirus coverage and Wesley Morris’ piece titled “My Mustache, My Self” on the intersection of race and culture in America, respectively.

Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, which was honored by the Scripps, Polk and Online News Association Awards, was also speculated to win for its piece “The Killing of George Floyd,” as Scripps called the article “a local news story that quickly became the global epicenter of America’s long struggle with racial inequality and injustice,” according to Poynter. For that story and more, the publication’s staff was named the winner of the Breaking News Reporting Pulitzer.

Notably, 18-year-old Darnella Frazier was honored with the Special Citation for her cell phone recording of Floyd’s murder, “a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice.”

The Pulitzer Prize Board postponed the awards, originally slated for April 19, for the second consecutive year so that its 18 members could deliberate in person, rather than remotely. The annual awards luncheon, usually held at Columbia University, is also delayed until the fall.

JOURNALISM

Breaking News Reporting

Winner: Staff of Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Finalists: Helen Branswell, Andrew Joseph and the late Sharon Begley of STAT, Boston, Mass; Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

Investigative Reporting

Winner: Matt Rocheleau, Vernal Coleman, Laura Crimaldi, Evan Allen and Brendan McCarthy of The Boston Globe

Finalists: Dake Kang and the Staff of Associated Press; Margie Mason and Robin McDowell of Associated Press

Explanatory Reporting

Winners: Ed Yong of The Atlantic; Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley, Andrea Januta, Jaimi Dowdell and Jackie Botts of Reuters

Finalists: Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek of BuzzFeed News, New York

Local Reporting

Winner: Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi of Tampa Bay Times

Finalists: Jack Dolan and Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times; Staff of The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

National Reporting

Winner: Staffs of the Marshall Project, AL.com, Birmingham; IndyStar, Indianapolis; and the Invisible Institute, Chicago

Finalists: Staff of The New York Times; Staff of The Wall Street Journal

International Reporting

Winner: Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek of Buzzfeed News, New York

Finalists: BuzzFeed News, New York, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Washington, D.C.; Staff of The New York Times; Staff of The Wall Street Journal

Feature Writing

Winners: Nadja Drost, freelance contributor, The California Sunday Magazine; Mitchell S. Jackson, freelance contributor of Runner’s World

Finalists: Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post

Commentary
Winner: Michael Paul Williams of Richmond Times-Dispatch

Finalists: Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star; Roy S. Johnson of Alabama Media Group, Birmingham

Criticism
Winner: Wesley Morris of The New York Times

Finalists: Craig Jenkins of New York magazine; Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times

Editorial Writing
Winner: Robert Greene of Los Angeles Times

Finalists: Alan Wirzbicki and Rachelle G. Cohen of The Boston Globe; Lee Hockstader of The Washington Post

Editorial Cartooning
Winner: N/A

Finalists: Ken Fisher, drawing as Ruben Bolling, for “Tom the Dancing Bug,” Andrews McMeel Syndicate; Lalo Alcaraz, Andrews McMeel Syndicate; Marty Two Bulls Sr., freelance cartoonist

Breaking News Photography
Winner: Photography Staff of Associated Press

Finalists: Hassan Ammar, Hussein Malla and Felipe Dana of Associated Press; Joshua Irwandi, freelance photographer, National Geographic

Feature Photography
Winner: Emilio Morenatti of Associated Press

Finalists: Staff of Getty Images; Tyler Hicks of The New York Times

Audio Reporting
Winner: Lisa Hagen, Chris Haxel, Graham Smith and Robert Little of National Public Radio

Finalists: Staff of National Public Radio; Staffs of the Invisible Institute, Chicago: The Intercept and Topic Studios

Public Service
Winner: The New York Times

Finalists: ProPublica, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

LETTERS, DRAMA AND MUSIC

Drama
Winner: The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall

Finalists: Circle Jerk by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley; Stew by Zora Howard

History
Winner: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain

Finalists: The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson (Scribner)

Biography
Winner: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by the late Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright/Norton)

Finalists: Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (Alfred A. Knopf); Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (Scribner)

Fiction
Winner: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Harper)

Finalists: A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason (Little, Brown and Company); Telephone by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)

Poetry
Winner: Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (Graywolf Press)

Finalists: A Treatise on Stars by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (New Directions); In the Lateness of the World by Carolyn Forché (Penguin Press)

General Nonfiction
Winner: Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Finalists: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Hong Park (One World/Random House); Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Random House)

Music
Winner: Stride by Tania León (Peermusic Classical)

Finalists: Data Lords by Maria Schneider; Place by Ted Hearne