The Pulitzer Prizes recognizing the best of journalism and the arts in 2022 were announced Monday. A former reporter for the Clarion Ledger won for local reporting.
Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe’s “The Backchannel” series detailed how state officials misspent millions in welfare money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in the United States. In one case, Wolfe wrote about how former Gov. Phil Bryant and NFL legend Brett Favre worked together to channel at least $5 million of the state’s welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre’s daughter played the sport.
Here is the entire list of winners:
PUBLIC SERVICE
Mstyslav Chernov, Lori Hinnant, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko, The Associated Press
The quartet of AP reporters won for what the Pulitzers described as “courageous reporting” from the besieged city of Mariupol about the slaughter of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You can find a list of stories the team produced on our “Erasing Mariupol” page.
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING
The Los Angeles Times
The staff of the Los Angeles Times published a secretly recorded conversation among LA city officials that included racist comments, and then followed up with in-depth coverage of the aftermath.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s “Capital Assets” series analyzed the investments of about 12,000 federal officials and their families between 2016 and 2021. The Journal collected and analyzed data on about 850,000 financial assets and more than 315,000 transactions. This was a staff award.
EXPLANATORY REPORTING
Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic
The Atlantic’s Caitlin Dickerson conducted more than 150 interviews as part of an 18-month investigation into former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy of child separation at the border.
LOCAL REPORTING
John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald and Challen Stephens, AL.com; Anna Wolfe, Mississippi Today
There were two winners; they don’t share the category, but instead each receive the full prize amount of $15,000. The AL.com, Birmingham, reporters won for a series of stories exposing how the police force in the town of Brookside preyed on residents to inflate revenue. The reporting freed people from jail, the outlet says, and resulted in resignations and new laws.
NATIONAL REPORTING
Caroline Kitchener, The Washington Post
Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post wrote about the consequences of life after the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, including stories about women trying to navigate the aftermath.
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING
The New York Times
The staff of The New York Times won for their coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including an investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha.
FEATURE WRITING
Eli Saslow, The Washington Post
Eli Saslow won for what the Pulitzers called “evocative individual narratives” about people struggling with the pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality in the United States. Saslow has since left the Post, joining The New York Times in February. According to the Times announcement, he had been a finalist in this category thrice before and had previously won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting.
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
The Associated Press
A team of AP photographers won the Pulitzer for “unique and urgent” images of the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While it was a staff award, AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham wrote that the prize is shared among Rodrigo Abd, Bernat Armangue, Felipe Dana, Nariman El-Mofty, Vadim Ghirda, Evgeniy Maloletka and Emilio Morenatti. See a photo gallery of their work here.
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Christina House, Los Angeles Times
Christina House of the Los Angeles Times won for “an intimate look” into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street in a tent. It was part of a series called “Hollywood’s Finest,” a look at the lives of three women without housing.
COMMENTARY
Kyle Whitmire, AL.com
Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham, won for “State of Denial,” a series of what the Pulitzers called “measured and persuasive columns” that documented how Alabama’s Confederate heritage still lingers.
CRITICISM
Andrea Long Chu, New York magazine
Andrea Long Chu of New York magazine won for book reviews that employ “multiple cultural lenses” to explore societal issues, the Pulitzers said.
EDITORIAL WRITING
Nancy Ancrum, Amy Driscoll, Luisa Yanez, Isadora Rangel and Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald
The Miami Herald writers won for “Broken Promises,” a series of editorials on the failure of Florida public officials to deliver on taxpayer-funded amenities and services long promised to residents.
ILLUSTRATED REPORTING AND COMMENTARY
Mona Chalabi, The New York Times
New York Times contributor Mona Chalabi won for illustrations that combine statistical reporting with analysis to help readers understand the immense wealth and economic power of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
This prize replaced the editorial cartooning award last year, right on the heels of Pulitzer judges declining to name an editorial cartooning winner in 2021.
AUDIO JOURNALISM
Gimlet Media, notably Connie Walker
The award went to the staff of Gimlet Media, notably Connie Walker, whose “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” investigation into her father’s troubled past revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children at a residential school in Canada.
FICTION
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver; “Trust” by Hernan Diaz
The two novels each won the fiction prize. “Demon Copperhead” is what the Pulitzers called a “masterful recasting of ‘David Copperfield,’” set in Appalachia. The citation described “Trust” as “riveting” and “a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king.”
DRAMA
“English” by Sanaz Toossi
Sanaz Toossi’s “English” is a “quietly powerful play,” the Pulitzers said, centered on four adults preparing for an English exam near Tehran, Iran. The classroom drama explores the ways in which language shapes identity, experience and a sense of belonging in the world.
According to the Pulitzer website, the jury for this prize attends plays in New York and in regional theaters – while the award goes to the playwright, the actual productions of the shows are factored in.
U.S. HISTORY
“Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power,” by Jefferson Cowie
Jefferson Cowie won the history prize for a book that the Pulitzers describe as a “resonant account of an Alabama county in the 19th and 20th centuries shaped by settler colonialism and slavery” that illustrates the evolution of white supremacy.
Generally speaking, this is the only arts and letters — books, music, drama — award that can be awarded to someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen (but the book must be a history of the U.S.).
GENERAL NONFICTION
“His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
The book by two Washington Post reporters is what the Pulitzers called an “intimate, riveting portrait” of George Floyd, the man whose murder by Minneapolis police officer in 2020 sparked an international racial justice movement. The Pulitzer board moved it from the biography category, a release says.
BIOGRAPHY
“G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,” by Beverly Gage
The prize was awarded to the “deeply researched and nuanced” biography of longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, per the citation.
MEMOIR OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“Stay True” by Hua Hsu
Hua Hsu’s memoir won this category for “an elegant and poignant coming of age account,” the Pulitzers said.
POETRY
“Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020,” by Carl Phillips
Carl Phillips’ poetry won for what the Pulitzers called “a masterful collection that chronicles American culture.”
MUSIC
“Omar,” by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel
“Omar” is an innovative and compelling opera about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries,” the Pulitzers said. It premiered last May at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.
To award the musical competition prize, the website says the jury convenes in New York to listen to recordings and study the scores.
