The Full List of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Top Honors in Journalism, Literature, and Arts
The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes have officially been announced, celebrating the most powerful achievements in journalism, literature, drama, and music. From groundbreaking investigations and fearless reporting to unforgettable fiction and memoirs, this year’s winners have made bold, lasting impressions on American culture and public discourse.
Read more: Who Is Percival Everett? the 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winner: Biography, Family Life, And Career
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| 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winners - Full List |
2025 Pulitzer Prize Overview
Held annually since 1917, the Pulitzer Prizes are among the most prestigious awards in the United States, honoring excellence in journalism and the arts. The 2025 winners reflect a year of global conflict, political upheaval, and cultural transformation, with many honorees tackling urgent issues like reproductive rights, war crimes, digital privacy, and historical memory.
2025 Pulitzer Prize Winners in Journalism
Public Service – ProPublica
ProPublica earned the highest journalism honor for its groundbreaking investigation into the tragic consequences of restrictive abortion laws in post-Roe America. The series uncovered how medical professionals, fearing prosecution, delayed or denied care to pregnant women—some of whom died as a result. This reporting directly influenced public policy debates and galvanized national outrage.
Breaking News Reporting – The Washington Post
The Post was recognized for its swift, detailed coverage of the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on Donald Trump, delivering live updates, investigative insights, and exclusive interviews in real-time. Their reporting was widely cited and became the definitive account of one of the year’s most shocking events.
Investigative Reporting – Reuters
Reuters’ “Fentanyl Express” exposed the Chinese chemical supply chain behind America’s deadly opioid epidemic. The global series revealed how precursor chemicals flowed from China to cartels in Mexico, fueling synthetic opioid production. It combined undercover work, international sources, and data journalism.
Explanatory Reporting – The New York Times
The Times examined U.S. policy in Afghanistan, revealing how support for brutal local militias ultimately pushed civilians toward the Taliban. Their deeply reported series included firsthand accounts, military documents, and satellite imagery—painting a complex portrait of America’s longest war.
Local Reporting – The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times
In a rare joint award, both outlets collaborated to investigate Baltimore’s overlooked fentanyl overdose crisis, particularly its devastating impact on older Black men. Their reporting prompted public health reforms and opened a long-ignored racial health disparity to national scrutiny.
National Reporting – The Wall Street Journal
WSJ reporters took a deep dive into Elon Musk’s political pivot, documenting his interactions with global powers—including Vladimir Putin—and the implications for U.S. national security and tech leadership. The reporting sparked public debates on power concentration and corporate influence.
International Reporting – The New York Times
Through harrowing dispatches and courageous fieldwork, The Times exposed war crimes and foreign interference in Sudan’s civil war. It traced how gold smuggling, proxy militias, and global players are shaping the country’s chaos.
Feature Writing – Mark Warren, Esquire
Warren’s longform profile of a small-town mayor and Baptist pastor who died by suicide—after a hidden digital life was revealed—was intimate, compassionate, and emotionally resonant. The story raised difficult questions about identity, secrecy, and shame in the digital age.
Commentary – Mosab Abu Toha, The New Yorker
Palestinian poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha shared personal reflections on the devastation in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign. His writing stood out for its lyrical clarity, moral urgency, and ability to humanize suffering in one of the world's most polarizing conflicts.
Criticism – Alexandra Lange, Bloomberg
Lange’s architectural criticism focused on public spaces for families and children, from libraries to playgrounds, with a lens on inclusion, safety, and civic engagement. Her writing showed how design affects everyday life and community resilience.
Editorial Writing – Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
A powerful series on dangerous train crossings in Texas earned the Chronicle this award. Their work pushed for policy change after fatal crashes involving school buses and trains, and has already influenced federal transportation safety reviews.
Illustrated Reporting and Commentary – Ann Telnaes, The Washington Post
Telnaes was honored for her searing political cartoons, especially those dissecting Donald Trump’s legal troubles and threats to democratic institutions. Her illustrations blended satire, fearlessness, and artistic craft.
Breaking News Photography – Doug Mills, The New York Times
Mills captured a dramatic sequence of images during the Trump assassination attempt, documenting the chaos, fear, and resilience in real time. His photographs became iconic visual records of the event.
Feature Photography – Moises Saman, The New Yorker
Saman’s black-and-white photo essay from Syria’s Sednaya prison revealed the chilling legacy of torture under Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The haunting images gave voice to survivors and illuminated the scars of authoritarian rule.
Audio Reporting – The New Yorker
The podcast In the Dark investigated the Haditha massacre, in which 25 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. Marines. After four years of reporting, the series brought new evidence to light and humanized a chapter of wartime violence long buried by bureaucracy.
Pulitzer Prizes in Books, Drama, and Music
Fiction – Percival Everett, James
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| Novelist Percival Everett won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “James” |
Everett’s James reimagines Huckleberry Finn through the voice of Jim, offering a searing indictment of American history and literature. The novel won praise for its emotional depth, biting irony, and cultural urgency, cementing Everett’s status as a literary giant.
Drama – Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Purpose
A multigenerational family drama exploring the lives of a successful Black family confronting loss, inheritance, and identity. Purpose was lauded for its humor, pathos, and sharp social observation.
History – Edda L. Fields-Black, Combee
This historical work uncovers Harriet Tubman’s leadership in the Combahee River Raid, the only U.S. military operation led by a Black woman. Richly documented and vividly told, Combee reframes Tubman as a military strategist and liberation fighter.
Biography – Jason Roberts, Every Living Thing
Roberts details the early scientific race to catalog all life on Earth—a story of ambition, obsession, and discovery. The book is both historical and philosophical, asking what it means to know the natural world.
Memoir or Autobiography – Tessa Hulls, Feeding Ghosts
This graphic memoir traces Hulls’ Chinese-American family history through generations of trauma, exile, and healing. Its format combines visual storytelling with literary depth.
Poetry – Marie Howe, New and Selected Poems
A retrospective of Howe’s spiritual, political, and intimate poems, this collection affirms her status as one of the most emotionally accessible poets writing today.
General Nonfiction – Benjamin Nathans, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause
A sweeping narrative about the Soviet dissident movement, Nathans explores the intellectual and moral foundations of resistance against totalitarianism.
Music – Susie Ibarra, Sky Islands
Blending traditional Filipino music, improvisation, and ambient soundscapes, Sky Islands was praised for its innovation and emotional resonance.
Final Thoughts
The 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners reflect not just artistic and journalistic excellence, but a collective reckoning with truth, power, and humanity. From the streets of Baltimore to the gold mines of Sudan, from intimate family histories to global movements—these stories define the moment we’re living through.
Stay tuned for how these works shape policy, culture, and the next generation of storytellers.
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