The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize is an annual $10,000 award given to a book that exemplifies, "literary grace, a commitment to serious research and social concern." The prize is given by the Nieman Foundation and by the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Established in 1998, the Lukas Prize Project consists of three awards: The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize ($10,000) The Mark Lynton History Prize ($10,000) The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award ($25,000 plus $5,000 for an annual finalist) The project is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, J. Anthony Lukas; it has been underwritten since its inception by the family of Mark Lynton, a German Jew who had careers with the British military, Citroen and Hunter Douglas.
Recipients In the list below, winners are listed first in the gold row, followed by the other nominees. Any finalists are marked with an asterisk. Note that shortlists were announced only starting in 2016; previously they would just announce winners and any finalists.
+Award winners and shortlists Year Author Title Publisher Result 1999All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of SlaveryWinner2000Winner2001Winner2002Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights RevolutionWinner2003Winner2004They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967Winner2005Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American WarWinner2006Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas TownWinner2007Winner2008Winner2009DoubledayWinner2010Winner2011 Farrar, Straus & GirouxWinnerStayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working ClassNew PressFinalistFour Fish: The Future of the Last Wild FoodPenguin PressFinalistScribnerFinalist2012 Viking PressWinnerMalcolm X: A Life of ReinventionViking PressFinalist2013 Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity ScribnerWinnerFire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David WojnarowiczBloomsburyFinalist2014 Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital Crown PublishersWinnerPalgrave MacmillanFinalist2015 Crown PublishersWinnerSpare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American DreamFarrar, Straus and GirouxShortlist2016 Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear WarViking PenguinWinnerHoughton Mifflin HarcourtFinalistLiverightShortlist and H. Luke Shaefer$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in AmericaHoughton Mifflin HarcourtShortlistHow Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of PiracyViking PenguinShortlist2017 Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives Nation BooksWinnerCrownFinalist Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning On the American RightThe New PressShortlistWhite Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in AmericaVikingShortlistDark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical RightDoubledayShortlist2018 Janesville: An American Story Simon & SchusterWinnerNomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First CenturyW.W. Norton & CompanyFinalistAmerican Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the WestCrownShortlistCrownShortlistScribnerShortlist2019 American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment Penguin PressWinnerPatriot Number One: American Dreams in ChinatownCrownFinalistIn the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian SpiesHarperCollinsShortlistAmerican Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three ActsPublicAffairsShortlistHeartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on EarthScribnerShortlist2020 Nan A. Talese/DoubledayWinnerCharged: The Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass IncarcerationRandom HouseFinalistGrace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to ForgivenessSt. Martin's PressShortlistBroke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken PromisesSt. Martin's PressShortlistPenguin PressShortlist2021 After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America VikingWinnerDark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance StatePenguin PressFinalistWe Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of SilenceGrand Central PublishingShortlistSisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White NationalismLittle, Brown and CompanyShortlistCaste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsRandom HouseShortlist2022Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American CityRandom HouseWinnerEmpire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler DynastyDoubledayFinalistDuttonShortlistMetropolitanShortlistNorton/LiverighShortlist2023Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation DoubledayWinner and Toluse OlorunnipaHis Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice VikingFinalistStrangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make UsFarrar, Straus and GirouxShortlistTree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s WoodsLittle, Brown SparkShortlistIt Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a PandemicBold Type BooksShortlist2024Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed Farrar, Straus and GirouxWinnerBottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State KnopfFinalistBlood Farm: The Explosive Big Pharma Scandal that Altered the AIDS CrisisShortlist and Zusha ElinsonAmerican Gun: The True Story of the AR-15ShortlistShortlist2025By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native LandHarperWinner and Stefan TimmermansCrownFinalistHomeland: The War on Terror in American Life CrownShortlistBringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice Penguin Random HouseShortlistWe Are Not Able to Live in the Sky: The Seductive Promise of MicrofinanceMetropolitanShortlist2026Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in AmericaScribnerWinnerTalk to Me: Lessons From a Family Forged by HistoryPantheonFinalistBorn in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City W.W. NortonShortlistThey Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals CrownShortlistBy the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine Farrar, Straus and GirouxShortlist
See also Mark Lynton History Prize J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award
References
External links Past winners and jurors at Columbia School of Journalism