Pulitzer Prize winners 2017: the full list

On April 10, 2017, the Pulitzer committee released its 101st class of winners. The Pulitzer, which honors America’s strongest journalistic and creative work, is usually chosen from a pool of finalists selected by experts in each category (the Pulitzer jury) and then narrowed down to a single winner by the Pulitzer board.

But the board is not bound to the finalist list created by the jury; that’s just a recommendation. In fact, some years the Pulitzer board has declined to pick a winner at all for certain categories. It is, in other words, a finicky selection process that can lead to some out-of-nowhere choices.

This year’s winners included some head scratchers (okay, Peggy Noonan!), some long-overdue victories (good for you, Hilton Als!), and a few no-brainers (congrats on a pretty fantastic year, Colson Whitehead!), all of which to say that it was pretty standard for the Pulitzers.

The full list of winners is below.

Journalism

Public service: New York Daily News and ProPublica, for Sarah Ryley’s series on NYPD-led evictions

Breaking news: Staff of the East Bay Times, for their coverage of the Ghost Ship fire

Investigative reporting: Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, for his coverage of the West Virginia opioid epidemic

Explanatory reporting: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and Miami Herald, for the Panama Papers

Local reporting: Staff of the Salt Lake Tribune, for their coverage of sexual assault at Brigham Young University

National reporting: David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, for his coverage of the question of Donald Trump’s philanthropy

International reporting: Staff of the New York Times, for reporting on Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Russia’s power abroad

Feature writing: C.J. Chivers of the New York Times, for his feature on a Marine’s life after the war

Commentary: Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal, for her coverage of the election season

Criticism: Hilton Als of the New Yorker, for his theater reviews

Editorial writing: Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times, for his coverage of Iowa’s corporate agricultural interests

Editorial cartooning: Jim Morin of the Miami Herald, for his political cartoons

Breaking news photography: Daniel Berehulak, freelancer, for his photography of government assault on drug dealers and users in the Philippines

Feature photography: E. Jason Wambsgans of the Chicago Tribune, for his photo essay on a child who survived a shooting in Chicago

Arts and letters

Fiction: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

Drama: Sweat, by Lynn Nottage

History: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971, by Heather Ann Thompson

Biography: The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between, by Hisham Matar

Poetry: Olio, by Tyehimba Jess

General nonfiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

Music: Angel’s Bone, by Du Yun

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