Video starts automatically with the announcement of Poetry finalists. Fiction finalists are announced at 33:08.
Percival Everett (Fort Gordon, Georgia, 1956) won with his twenty-fourth novel, James. A re-telling of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes and words of Finn's friend and travel companion Jim, who is an escaped slave, the novel critiques Twain’s romanticized portrayal of race through a contemporary, racially charged lens. The novel also won the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction.
Marie Howe (Rochester, New York, 1950) won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with her fifth collection, New and Selected Poems, covering four decades of poetry works.
Joseph Pulitzer, an American newspaper editor and publisher born in Hungary, devoted part of his fortune to establish what has became one of the most prestigious American prizes.
Assigned since 1917, the Pulitzer Prize promotes excellence in American journalism, drama, music and letters. Recently, the number of awarded disciplines expanded to include poetry and photography.
The Library collects all winning titles for fiction and poetry since 2000. There was no award for Fiction in 2012.