Coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war dominated the 2023 Pulitzer Prizes, which were announced in New York on Monday.
The Pulitzer Prize board declared that the New York Times won in the foreign reporting category for its “unflinching” coverage of the conflict, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian killings in the village of Bucha.
The Associated Press won the public service award, widely regarded as the highest honor, for “courageous” reporting on the siege of Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city besieged by Russian troops a year ago.
The agency also won the breaking news photography award for “unique and urgent images” from the first weeks of the conflict, launched by Russian troops in February 2022.
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Times scooped the breaking news reporting prize for revealing a secretly recorded conversation between local council members that included racist comments.
Journalists at The Wall Street Journal won the investigative reporting award for stories about the financial conflicts of interest among federal officials at 50 government agencies.
AL.com — a news outlet in the southern state of Alabama — took home two awards, including the local reporting prize for exposing how a local police force preyed on residents to inflate its revenue. It also won the commentary accolade.
2023 Pulitzer Prizes: JOURNALISM
| Category | Winner | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Public Service | Associated Press, for the work of Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant | Courageous reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol that bore witness to the slaughter of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. |
| Breaking News Reporting | Staff of the Los Angeles Times | For revealing a secretly recorded conversation among city officials that included racist comments, followed by coverage of the rapidly resulting turmoil and deeply reported pieces that delved further into the racial issues affecting local politics. |
| Investigative Reporting | Staff of The Wall Street Journal | For sharp accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies, revealing those who bought and sold stocks they regulated and other ethical violations by individuals charged with safeguarding the public’s interest. |
| Explanatory Reporting | Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic | For deeply reported and compelling accounting of the Trump administration policy that forcefully separated migrant children from their parents, resulting in abuses that have persisted under the current administration. |
| Local Reporting | Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today, Ridgeland, Miss. | For reporting that revealed how a former Mississippi governor used his office to steer millions of state welfare dollars to benefit his family and friends, including NFL quarterback Brett Favre. John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald and Challen Stephens of AL.com, Birmingham For a series exposing how the police force in the town of Brookside preyed on residents to inflate revenue, coverage that prompted the resignation of the police chief, four new laws and a state audit. |
| National Reporting | Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post | For unflinching reporting that captured the complex consequences of life after Roe v. Wade, including the story of a Texas teenager who gave birth to twins after new restrictions denied her an abortion. |
| International Reporting | Staff of The New York Times | For their unflinching coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha and the Russian unit responsible for the killings. |
| Feature Writing | Eli Saslow of The Washington Post | For evocative individual narratives about people struggling with the pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality that collectively form a sharply-observed portrait of contemporary America. |
| Commentary | Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham | For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama’s Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted. |
| Criticism | Andrea Long Chu of New York magazine | For book reviews that scrutinize authors as well as their works, using multiple cultural lenses to explore some of society’s most fraught topics. |
| Editorial Writing | Nancy Ancrum, Amy Driscoll, Luisa Yanez, Isadora Rangel and Lauren Costantino of the Miami Herald | For a series of editorials on the failure of Florida public officials to deliver on many taxpayer-funded amenities and services promised to residents over decades. |
| Illustrated Reporting and Commentary | Mona Chalabi, contributor, The New York Times | For striking illustrations that combine statistical reporting with keen analysis to help readers understand the immense wealth and economic power of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. |
| Breaking News Photography | Photography Staff of Associated Press | For unique and urgent images from the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the devastation of Mariupol after other news organizations left, victims of the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the resilience of the Ukrainian people who were able to flee. |
| Feature Photography | Christina House of the Los Angeles Times | For an intimate look into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street in a tent–images that show |
| Audio Reporting | Staff of Gimlet Media, notably Connie Walker | Whose investigation into her father’s troubled past revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children at an Indian residential school in Canada, including other members of Walker’s extended family, a personal search for answers expertly blended with rigorous investigative reporting. |
2023 Pulitzer Prizes: BOOKS, DRAMA & MUSIC
| Category | Title and Author |
|---|---|
| Fiction | “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper) |
| Fiction | “Trust” by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead Books) |
| Drama | “English” by Sanaz Toossi |
| History | “Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power” by Jefferson Cowie (Basic Books) |
| Biography | “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” by Beverly Gage (Viking) |
| Memoir or Autobiography | “Stay True” by Hua Hsu (Doubleday) |
| Poetry | “Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020” by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) |
| General Nonfiction | “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking) (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.) |
| Music | “Omar” by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels |