Awards & Winners

2012 Pulitzer Prize

Check winners and nominations of 2012 Pulitzer Prize. Check awards winners of 2012 Pulitzer Prize. (Click on the Award name to show winners and nominees)

2012 Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize for History

Manning Marable

Honored for : Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Manning Marable Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Anne F. Hyde Empires, Nations & Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860
Anthony Summers The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden
Robbyn Swan The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden
Richard White Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction

Stephen Greenblatt

Honored for : The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Diane Ackerman One Hundred Names For Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing
A resilient author\u2019s account of caring for a stricken husband, sharing fears and insights as she explores neurology and ponders the gift of words.
Mara Hvistendahl Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
An evocative, deeply researched book probing the causes and effects of a global imbalance in the gender ratio.
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Tracy K. Smith

Honored for : Life on Mars

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Tracy K. Smith Life on Mars
Forrest Gander Core Samples from the World
Ron Padgett How Long
Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Quiara Alegría Hudes

Honored for : Water by the Spoonful

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Quiara Alegría Hudes Water by the Spoonful
Jon Robin Baitz Other Desert Cities
Stephen Karam Sons of the Prophet
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography

John Lewis Gaddis

Honored for : George F. Kennan: An American Life

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
John Lewis Gaddis George F. Kennan: An American Life
Mary Gabriel Love and Capital
Manning Marable Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Pulitzer Prize for Music

Kevin Puts

Honored for : Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Kevin Puts Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts
Tod Machover Death and the Powers
Andrew Norman The Companion Guide to Rome
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography

Massoud Hossaini

(For his heartbreaking image of a girl crying in fear after a suicide bomber\u2019s attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Massoud Hossaini
For his heartbreaking image of a girl crying in fear after a suicide bomber\u2019s attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul.
Carolyn Cole
For their illumination of epic disasters in Japan, documenting the brutality of nature as well as the durability of the human spirit.
Brian vander Brug
For their illumination of epic disasters in Japan, documenting the brutality of nature as well as the durability of the human spirit.
John Moore
For their brave coverage of revolutionary protests known as the Arab Spring, capturing the chaos and exuberance as ordinary people glimpsed new possibilities.
Peter Macdiarmid
For their brave coverage of revolutionary protests known as the Arab Spring, capturing the chaos and exuberance as ordinary people glimpsed new possibilities.
Chris Hondros
For their brave coverage of revolutionary protests known as the Arab Spring, capturing the chaos and exuberance as ordinary people glimpsed new possibilities.
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting

The Tuscaloosa News

(For its enterprising coverage of a deadly tornado, using social media as well as traditional reporting to provide real-time updates, help locate missing people and produce in-depth print accounts even after power disruption forced the paper to publish at another plant 50 miles away.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Capital Newspapers Wisconsin State Journal
For its energetic coverage of 27 days of around-the-clock protests in the State Capitol over collective bargaining rights, using an array of journalistic tools to capture one breaking development after another.
The Tuscaloosa News
For its enterprising coverage of a deadly tornado, using social media as well as traditional reporting to provide real-time updates, help locate missing people and produce in-depth print accounts even after power disruption forced the paper to publish at another plant 50 miles away.
Gannett Company
For its comprehensive coverage of the mass shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, an exemplary use of journalistic tools, from Twitter to video to written reports and features, to tell an unfolding story.
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Mary Schmich

(For her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Mary Schmich
For her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city.
Nicholas D. Kristof
For his valorous columns that transport readers into dangerous international scenes, from Egypt to Kenya to Cambodia, often focusing on the disenfranchised and always providing insight.
Steve Lopez
For his engaging commentary on death and dying, marked by pieces on his own father\u2019s rapid physical and mental decline, that stir readers to address end-of-life questions.
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

Wesley Morris

(For his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Wesley Morris
For his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office.
Philip Kennicott
For his ambitious and insightful cultural criticism, taking on topical events from the uprisings in Egypt to the dedication of the Ground Zero memorial, causing readers to reflect on the world around them.
Tobi Tobias
For work that reveals passion as well as deep historical knowledge of dance, her well-expressed arguments coming from the heart as well as the head.
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

Matt Wuerker

(For his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Matt Wuerker
For his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington.
Matt Bors
For his pungent work outside the traditional style of American cartooning.
Jack Ohman
For his clever daily cartoons and a distinctive Sunday panel on local issues in which his reporting was as important as his artistic execution.
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting

David Kocieniewski

(For his lucid series that penetrated a legal thicket to explain how the nation\u2019s wealthiest citizens and corporations often exploited loopholes and avoided taxes.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
David Kocieniewski
For his lucid series that penetrated a legal thicket to explain how the nation\u2019s wealthiest citizens and corporations often exploited loopholes and avoided taxes.
Tom Frank USA Today
For his sharply focused exploration of inflated pensions for state and local employees, enhancing stories with graphic material to show how state legislators pump up retirement benefits in creative but unconscionable ways.
The Wall Street Journal
For its tenacious exploration of how personal information is harvested from the cellphones and computers of unsuspecting Americans by corporations and public officials in a largely unmonitored realm of modern life.
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography

Craig F. Walker

(For his compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Craig F. Walker
For his compassionate chronicle of an honorably discharged veteran, home from Iraq and struggling with a severe case of post-traumatic stress, images that enable viewers to better grasp a national issue.
David Guttenfelder
For their extraordinary portrayal of daily life inside the reclusive nation of North Korea, including scenes after the death of Kim Jong Il.
Ng Han Guan
For their extraordinary portrayal of daily life inside the reclusive nation of North Korea, including scenes after the death of Kim Jong Il.
Rafael Wober
For their extraordinary portrayal of daily life inside the reclusive nation of North Korea, including scenes after the death of Kim Jong Il.
Francine Orr
For her poignant portrait of the suffering by desperate families and misunderstood children who live with autism.
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing

Eli Sanders

(For his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman\u2019s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Eli Sanders
For his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman\u2019s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative.
John Branch
For his deeply reported story of Derek Boogaard, a professional hockey player valued for his brawling, whose tragic story shed light on a popular sport\u2019s disturbing embrace of potentially brain-damaging violence.
Corinne Reilly
For her inspiring stories that bring the reader side-by-side with the medical professionals seeking to save the lives of gravely injured American soldiers at a combat hospital in Afghanistan.
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting

Jeffrey Gettleman

(For his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa, a neglected but increasingly strategic part of the world.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Jeffrey Gettleman
For his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa, a neglected but increasingly strategic part of the world.
The New York Times
For its powerful exploration of serious mistakes concealed by authorities in Japan after a tsunami and earthquake devastated the nation, and caused a nuclear disaster.
Thomson-Reuters Corporation
For its well-crafted reports on the momentous revolution in Libya that went beyond battlefield dispatches to tell the wider story of discontent, conflict and the role of outside powers.
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, Chris Hawley

(For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Matt Apuzzo
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Adam Goldman
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Eileen Sullivan
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Chris Hawley
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Michael J. Berens
For their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington State moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.
Ken Armstrong
For their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington State moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.
Gary Marx
For their exposure of a neglectful state justice system that allowed dozens of brutal criminals to evade punishment by fleeing the country, sparking moves for corrective change.
David Jackson
For their exposure of a neglectful state justice system that allowed dozens of brutal criminals to evade punishment by fleeing the country, sparking moves for corrective change.
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

Michael J. Berens, Ken Armstrong

(For their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington State moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Matt Apuzzo
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Adam Goldman
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Eileen Sullivan
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Chris Hawley
For their spotlighting of the New York Police Department\u2019s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
Michael J. Berens
For their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington State moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.
Ken Armstrong
For their investigation of how a little known governmental body in Washington State moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug, coverage that prompted statewide health warnings.
Gary Marx
For their exposure of a neglectful state justice system that allowed dozens of brutal criminals to evade punishment by fleeing the country, sparking moves for corrective change.
David Jackson
For their exposure of a neglectful state justice system that allowed dozens of brutal criminals to evade punishment by fleeing the country, sparking moves for corrective change.
Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting

Sara Ganim

Honored for : The Patriot-News
(For courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
For their tenacious exposure of disgraceful conditions in federally-supported housing in a small rural community that, within hours, triggered a state investigation.
Sara Ganim
For courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The Patriot-News
For courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.
California Watch
For its rigorous probe of deficient earthquake protection in the construction of public schools across the state, telling the story with words, graphics, videos and other tools.
A.M. Sheehan
For their tenacious exposure of disgraceful conditions in federally-supported housing in a small rural community that, within hours, triggered a state investigation.
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting

David Wood

(For his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
David Wood
For his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war.
Jeff Donn
For his diligent exposure of federal regulators easing or neglecting to enforce safety standards as aging nuclear power plants exceed their original life spans, with interactive data and videos used to drive home the findings.
Jessica Silver-Greenberg
For her compelling examination of aggressive debt collectors whose often questionable tactics, profitable but largely unseen by the public, vexed borrowers hard hit by the nation\u2019s financial crisis.
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

The Philadelphia Inquirer

(For its exploration of pervasive violence in the city\u2019s schools, using powerful print narratives and videos to illuminate crimes committed by children against children and to stir reforms to improve safety for teachers and students.)

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
The Philadelphia Inquirer
For its exploration of pervasive violence in the city\u2019s schools, using powerful print narratives and videos to illuminate crimes committed by children against children and to stir reforms to improve safety for teachers and students.
The Miami Herald
For its exposure of deadly abuses and lax state oversight in Florida\u2019s assisted-living facilities for the elderly and mentally ill that resulted in the closure of dangerous homes, punishment of violators and creation of tougher laws and regulations.
The New York Times
For the work of Danny Hakim and Russ Buettner that revealed rapes, beatings and more than 1,200 unexplained deaths over the past decade of developmentally disabled people in New York State group homes, leading to removal of two top officials, movement to fire 130 employees and passage of remedial laws.