Jill Lepore, Daniel Kraus win Pulitzer book prizes for history, fiction

Jill Lepore and Daniel Kraus won the 2026 Pulitzer book prizes on Monday, giving the history award to “We the People” and the fiction prize to “Angel Down” as Columbia University’s annual spring honors turned attention back to books that probe American power, memory and identity. The prizes were announced by Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller in a livestream at 3 p.m. EDT, with the books, drama and music categories covering works published in calendar year 2025.

Lepore’s “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” fit squarely into the country’s current argument over democratic institutions. Harvard has described the book as a new history of the Constitution for a “troubling new era,” and said Lepore argues that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. That focus on amendment, rather than reverence alone, gives the book direct relevance in a moment when disputes over the Constitution shape fights over voting rights, executive power and the limits of government.

Kraus won for “Angel Down,” which the Pulitzer board described as a World War I novel told in one long sentence, blending allegory, magical realism and science fiction. The win marked a notable crossover for an author known for fantasy, horror and young adult fiction, according to AP coverage. In a field that often rewards realism and historical reconstruction, Kraus’s victory showed that the board was willing to recognize formal risk and genre-bending work when it meets the standard for distinguished fiction.

Each of the winning book categories carries a $15,000 prize. The Pulitzer Prizes have announced finalists since 1980, and the books competition for this cycle was limited to works published in 2025. Lepore had previously been a Pulitzer finalist in history for “New York Burning,” a reminder that this win capped a long run of serious historical scholarship rather than an overnight shift in attention.

Taken together, the two awards pointed to a broader intellectual mood in the United States: one book returned to the Constitution as a living document shaped by amendment, while the other recast a century-old war through literary experiment. In a year when public debate continues to turn on how institutions endure, bend and fail, the Pulitzer board chose two books that treat history not as settled memory, but as an active civic struggle.