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Lukas prize finalists spotlight Baldwin
biography and a searing look at Ukraine’s war
[February 20, 2026]
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK
(AP) — A biography of James Baldwin, a deep and personal probe into the
Russian invasion of Ukraine and a revelatory history of the American
West inspired by a 19th century photograph are among this year's
finalists for prizes established in honor of the late investigative
journalist J. Anthony Lukas.
The finalists in three categories were announced Thursday by the
Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at
Harvard University, which oversee the Lukas Prize Project.
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This combination of cover images show, top row from left, "Born in
Flames" by Bench Ansfield, "Talk to Me" by Rich Benjamin, "They Poisoned
the World" by Mariah Blake, "Seeking Shelter" by Jeff Hobbs, and "By the
Second Spring" by Danielle Leavitt, bottom row from left, "Capitalism"
by Sven Beckert, "Baldwin" by Nicholas Boggs, "The Golden Road" by
William Dalrymple, The Zorg" by Siddharth Kara, and "The Girl in the
Middle" by Martha A Sandweiss. (W. W.
Norton/Pantheon/Crown/Scribner/Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Penguin Press/FSG/Bloomsbury/St.
Martin's/Princeton University Press via AP) |
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Danielle Leavitt's “By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One
Year of the War in Ukraine” is a nominee for the $10,000 Lukas
Book Prize, given for works that exemplify “literary grace,
commitment to serious research and original reporting.” Others
cited are Bench Ansfield's “Born in Flames: The Business of
Arson and the Remaking of the American City,” Rich Benjamin's
“Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History,” Mariah
Blake's “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of
Forever Chemicals” and Jeff Hobbs' “Seeking Shelter: A Working
Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America.”
Nicholas Boggs' “Baldwin: A Love Story,” one of last year's most
acclaimed books, is a finalist for the $10,000 Mark Lynton
History Prize. The other nominees are Martha A. Sandweiss' “The
Girl in the Middle,” based on the picture of a Native girl from
an 1868 photograph; Sven Beckert's “Capitalism: A Global
History,” William Dalrymple's “The Golden Road: How Ancient
India Transformed the World” and Siddharth Kara's “The Zorg: A
Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of
Slavery.”
Lukas project officials also announced finalists for the
Work-in-Progress Prizes, with two winners each receiving
$25,000.
The nominees are Bryce Andrews' “Seaworthy,” danah boyd's “Data
Are Made, Not Found,” Esmé E. Deprez's “Inviting Death In,”
Sarah Esther Maslin's “Nothing Stays Buried” and Karim Zidan's
“In the Shadow of the Cage.”
Previous winners of the Lukas prizes, founded in 1998, include
Robert Caro, Jill Lepore and Samantha Power.
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