Colson Whitehead won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for his book The Nickel Boys, becoming the fourth novelist after Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and John Updike to ever win two Pulitzers for fiction. The Nickel Boys, which is based on the real Dozier School in Florida, is a devastating story about abuse in a juvenile reform school. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, won the commentary award for “a sweeping, deeply reported and personal essay” that served as an introductory essay for The 1619 Project, a series that re-examines the history of slavery in America. 

The staff of The Baltimore Sun won the local reporting award for impactful coverage on the financial scandal involving Baltimore’s former Mayor Catherine Pugh. The staff of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, won the breaking news reporting award for coverage of Gov. Matt Bevin’s pardons of hundreds of criminals in his last days in office. The New York Times won the highest number of awards for major categories such as investigative reporting, international reporting, and commentary.