The Staff of 'Star Tribune' in Minneapolis, Minn. won the 2021 Breaking News Reporting Pulitzer for their coverage of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and protests that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
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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.
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 on the aftermath of Floyd’s murder, 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 final moments, “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.
Stay tuned for the full list of 2021’s winning storytellers in journalism, books, poetry and more below as they are announced:
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
- Yong’s work: “How The Pandemic Will End” and more
- Reuters story: “Shielded: How an obscure legal doctrine called qualified immunity protects police accused of excessive force”
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
- The story: “Mauled: When police dogs are weapons”
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
- Drost’s story: “‘When can we really rest?’ More migrants than ever are crossing the Colombia-Panama border to reach the U.S. Five days inside the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous journeys in the world.”
- Jackson’s story: “Twelve Minutes and a Life: Ahmaud Arbery went out for a jog and was gunned down in the street. How running fails Black America”
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