Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation have revealed the finalists for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the Mark Lynton History Prize, given annually to “the best in American nonfiction book writing.”
Bench Ansfield made the shortlist for the Lukas prize for Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City, alongside Rich Benjamin for Talk to Me: Lessons From a Family Forged by History; Mariah Blake for They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals; Jeff Hobbs for Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America; and Danielle Leavitt for By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine.
Nicholas Boggs was shortlisted for the Lynton prize for Baldwin: A Love Story, which was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. Also named finalists for the Lynton prize were Sven Beckert for Capitalism: A Global History; William Dalrymple for The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World; Siddharth Kara for The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery; and Martha A. Sandweiss for The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West.
The Lukas and Lynton prizes, both of which come with a cash award of $10,000, were established in 1998. Previous winners include Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11; Andrew Solomon for Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity; and Kathleen DuVal for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.
The winners of this year’s prizes will be announced on March 17.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
