Pulitzer Prize winners 2026: Experimental war dramas and Trump chaos

By David Mouriquand & AP Published on 05/05/2026 - 10:41 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

Pulitzer Prize judges have awarded the fiction prize to Daniel Kraus for "Angel Down", a World War I narrative told in one long, continuous sentence. The prizes for journalism were dominated by coverage of the Trump administration.

Pulitzer Prize officials have awarded this year’s awards, from fiction writing to music and investigative reporting.

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This year’s fiction prize went to an author with a history of experimenting with genres and language: Daniel Kraus, cited for “Angel Down,” a World War I narrative that unfolds over some 300 pages in one long, continuous sentence.

“Angel Down”, whose protagonist is an army private who encounters an angel on the battlefield, was praised as “a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism, and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.”

Kraus has previously written horror and science fiction novels, and has collaborated with filmmakers like George Romero and Guillermo del Toro, whose Oscar-winning The Shape of Water was conceived with Kraus' help.

Bess Wohl’s 'Liberation', exploring 1970s feminist consciousness-raising groups, secured the drama prize. The play confronts misogyny, homophobia and explores gender roles.

Other literary accolades included Jill Lepore’s "We the People: A History of the US Constitution" for history, and Amanda Vaill’s "Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution" in biography.

Yiyun Li’s "Things in Nature Merely Grow", an account of her two sons’ suicides, was recognised for memoir-autobiography, while Brian Goldstone’s "There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America" won for general nonfiction.

The poetry prize went to Juliana Spahr’s "Ars Poeticas", and the music award was given to American pianist and composer Gabriela Lena Frank for 'Picaflor: A Future Myth', a symphonic work composed for the Philadelphia Orchestra, inspired by Andean legend and California wildfires.

Elsewhere, coverage of the Trump administration dominated the Pulitzer Prizes, as the prize committee commented in no uncertain terms on Trump's attempts to limit freedom of reporting.

"We stand for civil discourse and against censorship," said Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller ahead of the announcements yesterday, which honored coverage of Trump's immigration crackdown and the enrichment of his allies. "Unfortunately, this bears repeating now, as media access to the White House and Pentagon is restricted, free speech is challenged in the streets, and the President of the United States has filed lawsuits for billions of dollars for defamation and malice against multiple print and broadcast media."

The prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism was awarded to The Washington Post for its in-depth coverage of Trump's "chaotic" efforts to reconstruct the US federal bureaucracy.

The investigative reporting prize went to The New York Times for its series exposing how Trump "exploited the money-making opportunities that come with power, enriching his family and allies."

In the local reporting category, the Chicago Tribune was honored for its "vivid, muscular prose" reporting how federal immigration agents subjected the midwestern city to a "siege-like incursion" as part of Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants. A second prize in that category went to the Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica for an investigation into unscrupulous vehicle towing practices.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown received a special citation for her "groundbreaking reporting" in 2017 and 2018 of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "Her 'Perversion of Justice' series, published nearly a decade ago, revealed how prosecutors shielded Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges when he was first accused of abusing young women," Miller said.

The New York Times also won the breaking news photography category for Saher Alghorra's "haunting, sensitive" images showing the "devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel."

Reuters news agency received the nod in the national reporting category for its coverage of Trump's use of executive power and his supporters' influence to "exact vengeance on his foes."

The Associated Press news agency was honored in the international reporting category for its reporting on how the US government allowed US businesses to sell surveillance technology to China.

The Pulitzer for explanatory reporting went to the San Francisco Chronicle for its series on the aftermath of the LA fires, showing how insurers undervalued properties lost to fires, denied homeowner claims and hampered their efforts to rebuild.

Reuters scooped the Pulitzer for beat reporting, honored by the committee for "inventive and revelatory" coverage of how Meta knowingly exposed users to scams and AI manipulation.

The Pulitzer for breaking news reporting was awarded to the Minnesota Star Tribune for its coverage of a shooting in a back-to-school mass at a Catholic school that left two children dead and 17 wounded. The coverage highlighted the prevalence of gun violence in the US and the limitations of efforts to combat it.

The Pulitzer for feature writing went to Aaron Parsley of Texas Monthly for his account of the Central Texas floods that destroyed his home and killed his nephew.

The prizes, established in newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s will, were first awarded in 1917. Winners receive $15,000, and the public service award carries a gold medal. Decisions are made by the Pulitzer Board, based at Columbia University in New York.

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