The recipients of the 101st Pulitzer Prizes were announced on April 10—what would have been Joseph Pulitzer's 170th birthday—by Pulitzer Prize administrator Mike Pride during a ceremony at Columbia University's Pulitzer Hall in New York.
"Today the Pulitzer Prizes begin their second century," Pride said. (He will step down after this year from the 19-member board.)
In fiction, Colson Whitehead won for The Underground Railroad (Doubleday), which the judges called "a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America." With the win, Whitehead becomes the seventh author to win the NBA and Pulitzer for the same novel. (Whitehead took home the 2016 National Book Award for fiction for his book.)
In drama, Lynn Nottage won for Sweat (TCG), "a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream."
In history, Heather Ann Thompson won for Blood In the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy (Pantheon), "a narrative history that sets high standards for scholarly judgment and tenacity of inquiry in seeking the truth about the 1971 Attica prison riots."
In biography/autobiography, Hisham Matar won for The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between (Random House), "a first-person elegy for home and father that examines with controlled emotion the past and present of an embattled region." (Matar took home the inaugural PEN/Jean Stein Award for the book earlier in the month.)
In poetry, Tyehimba Jess won for Olio (Wave), "a distinctive work that melds performance art with the deeper art of poetry to explore collective memory and challenge contemporary notions of race and identity."
In general nonfiction, Matthew Desmond won for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown), "a deeply researched exposé that showed how mass evictions after the 2008 economic crash were less a consequence than a cause of poverty."
Three of the Pulitzer winners—Underground Railroad, Evicted, and Blood in the Water—were featured in the PW's Top 10 Best Books of 2016, and The Return was listed as one of PW's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2016.
PW Reviews of Previous Books By This Year's Pulitzer Winners
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 2014)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 2011)
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar (Dial, 2011)
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (Dial, 2007)
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 2006)
Leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess (Wave, 2005)
The Colossus of New York: A City In Thirteen Parts by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 2004)
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, 2001)
The Institutionalist by Colson Whitehead (Anchor, 1998)
This article has been updated with further information.