The prestigious J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project has announced its 2024 laureates, recognizing exceptional nonfiction works that tackle profound social issues through rigorous research and narrative excellence. Administered through a partnership between Columbia Journalism School and Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation, these awards continue their tradition of celebrating investigative depth and literary merit.
Jeff Hobbs received the Lukas Book Prize, accompanied by a $10,000 award, for his work ‘Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America.’ The selection committee praised the book for its compassionate examination of housing insecurity and its human impact on American families, highlighting its combination of meticulous research with compelling storytelling.
The Mark Lynton History Prize, also carrying a $10,000 award, was presented to William Dalrymple for ‘The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World.’ The work received recognition for its groundbreaking exploration of India’s historical influence on global civilization, demonstrating both scholarly depth and narrative elegance.
This year’s Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards, each providing $25,000 to support authors during their writing process, were granted to two distinctive projects: danah boyd for ‘Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the U.S. Census,’ which examines the bureaucratic challenges and political pressures surrounding the national census, and Karim Zidan for ‘In the Shadow of the Cage,’ a work whose subject matter continues the Lukas tradition of addressing complex social themes.
Established in 1998 to honor the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J. Anthony Lukas, these awards have previously celebrated literary luminaries including Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson, and Jill Lepore, maintaining their position among the most distinguished recognitions in nonfiction literature.