Columbia University’s Journalism School and Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism announced the finalists for their annual J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize this morning.
The Lukas Prize, established in 1998, is meant to honor “excellence in nonfiction that exemplifies the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of the awards’ Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake, J. Anthony Lukas.”
The shortlist for this year’s award includes Emily Bazelon’s Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, which is also a finalist for this year’s Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest.
Also nominated are Jennifer Berry Hawes for Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness and Jodie Adams Kirshner for Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises.
Alex Kotlowitz made the shortlist for An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, as did Margaret O’Mara for The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.
Previous winners of the Lukas Book Prize have included Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 and Shane Bauer for American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment.
The universities also revealed the shortlists for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, which includes books by Sarah Schulman and Shahan Mufti, and the Mark Lynton History Prize, which features books by Carrie Gibson and Brendan Simms.
The winners of the awards will be announced on March 18.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
