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2024 Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners
These books are recognized by the highest honor in literary achievement.
Published on May 15, 2024
Curated ByLanie Pemberton
Lanie is a San Diego-based freelance writer who loves reading crime thrillers and nonfiction about animals and the natural world. When not writing and reading (or writing about what to read), Lanie spends as much time as possible at the beach with her husband and pampered pittie, Peach.
Wednesday's Child: Stories
Yiyun LiFiction Finalist: In this collection of short stories, Li (“The Book of Goose”) explores grief and loss, womanhood and motherhood, and how ordinary people make sense of the unimaginable. In the title story, a woman whose teenage daughter died by suicide contemplates the differences between their bond and the strained relationship she had with her own mother. In each tale, Li combines moments of devastation, hope, and understanding, showing the nonlinear ways people navigate pain.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
Ilyon WooBiography Winner: Woo revives an incredibly true story in “Master Slave Husband Wife.” The book, which Woo is careful to root in verifiable facts, follows Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery in 19th-century America by posing as slave and master on their travels north. It’s a remarkable tale of determination and steadfast love, and the author paints a vivid picture of the time, including the many dangers enslaved people faced.
Larry McMurtry: A Life
Tracy DaughertyBiography Finalist: Following portraits of figures like Joan Didion (“The Last Love Song”) and Joseph Heller (“Just One Catch”), Daugherty offers the definitive biography of Larry McMurtry — the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Lonesome Dove,” along with other acclaimed novels and Oscar-winning screenplays. This account explores McMurtry’s affinity for the American West, along with the ups and downs of both his literary career and personal life. The result is balanced, but readers will no doubt come away with a fondness for McMurtry, who passed away in 2021.
Tripas: Poems
Brandon SomPoetry Winner: Som unites different aspects of his seemingly disparate heritage in these stirring poems. Using vivid imagery often related to his grandparents’ work — from a circuit board factory to a local corner store — Som weaves his Mexican and Chinese roots together to create something entirely new and cohesive: a true American identity. Along with winning a Pulitzer Prize, “Tripas” was also a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry.
To 2040
Jorie GrahamFinalist for Poetry: In Graham’s 15th poetry collection, the devastation of climate change is on full display, as are the poet’s myriad emotions about our inevitable future. These poems give a brutal picture of life in 2040; instead of getting lost in death and destruction, the focus is on reckoning with our roles in the chaos, and what we stand to lose because of it. Graham previously won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “The Dream of the Unified Field.”
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy
Nathan ThrallGeneral Nonfiction Winner: “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” recounts a 2012 bus accident in Jerusalem that killed seven Palestinian passengers, including six kindergarten students. Framing the story as Abed Salama’s desperate search for his son, who was on board, Thrall’s book is ultimately an examination of the many ways Palestinians living in Jerusalem are denied agency and support. Put in the context of a tragedy, hurdles like having the “wrong” ID to enter certain areas of Jerusalem become a matter of life and death.
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Siddharth KaraFinalist for General Nonfiction: Kara, a professor and expert in modern slavery, explores how the smartphones and laptops that power the developed world are rooted in heinous human rights violations. Part exposé, part call-to-action, this alarming book sheds light on the realities of Congolese cobalt miners (including children), who suffer under brutal conditions and poverty so that we can scroll, stream, and stay connected.