Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography · 2025 · Winner
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Shortlist
Complete History
2020s
- 2025Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life — Jason Roberts
- 2024King: A Life — Jonathan Eig
- 2023G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century — Beverly Gage
- 2022Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South — Winfred Rembert
- 2021The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X — Les Payne
- 2020Sontag: Her Life and Work — Benjamin Moser
2010s
- 2019The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke — Jeffrey C. Stewart
- 2018Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder — Caroline Fraser
- 2017The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between — Hisham Matar
- 2016Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life — William Finnegan
- 2015The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe — David I. Kertzer
- 2014Margaret Fuller: A New American Life — Megan Marshall
- 2013The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo — Tom Reiss
- 2012George F. Kennan: An American Life — John Lewis Gaddis
- 2011Washington: A Life — Ron Chernow
- 2010The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt — T.J. Stiles
About the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography is awarded annually for a distinguished American biography or autobiography. One of the original Pulitzer categories, it has been awarded since 1917 and is administered by Columbia University. The prize carries a cash award of $15,000 and a certificate. It has recognized some of the most celebrated biographical works in American letters, including Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life, and Stacy Schiff's Véra. The award covers both biography of any subject — not necessarily American — written by an American author, and autobiography by an American author. Ten people have won the prize twice, including David McCullough, Robert Caro, and David Levering Lewis. In 2024, two prizes were awarded — to Jonathan Eig for King: A Life and Ilyon Woo for Master Slave Husband Wife. Finalists, typically two, are announced alongside the winner each spring. The prize has evolved to embrace a wide range of biographical approaches, from traditional narrative biography to hybrid memoir-history and innovative biographical criticism.
Frequently Asked Questions
- American authors who publish a distinguished biography of any subject, or an autobiography, during the preceding calendar year are eligible.
- No. The subject can be of any nationality, but the author must be American.
- Winners receive $15,000 and a certificate.
- Yes. In 2021, the prize was awarded posthumously to Les Payne (with co-author Tamara Payne), and in 2022 to Winfred Rembert (with co-author Erin I. Kelly).
- Ten people have won twice, including Robert Caro, David McCullough, David Levering Lewis, and Walter Jackson Bate.
- Yes. The prize has no restriction on the subject's status; biographies of living people are eligible.
- Winners are announced each spring, typically in May.