Pulitzer Prize 2020 winning books you should read

One of the most prestigious annual awards, the Pulitzer Prize 2020 winners were announced by Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy on May 4 through video streaming. This year, 15 prizes were given in journalism and seven for arts. The Books, Drama and Music (arts) categories include: Fiction, Drama, History, Biography or Autobiography, Poetry, General Non-fiction, and Music. It's noted that the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction is one of the biggest awards for literature. And as readers and book lovers, this is a category that you should pay extra attention to!

Here we list down the Pulitzer Prize 2020 winners in five categories. Add these award-winning books to your reading list, now!

Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel 'The Nickel Boys', released in 2019. The book is based on the horrifying incidents that took place in Dozier School for Boys, where many young boys were convicted for petty crimes and even tortured to death. It is "A spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption," reads a statement about the book on Pulitzer Prizes' website. This is Whitehead's second Pulitzer Prize; his first was for his novel 'The Underground Railroad' in 2017. Whitehead is the fourth author to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice!

(Photo: Fleet)

'Sontag: Her Life and Work' by Benjamin Moser won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this year. The biography captures the life and times of Susan Sontag, who is considered as one of America's most towering intellectuals of the 20th century. The book is "An authoritatively constructed work told with pathos and grace, that captures the writer’s genius and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities and volatile enthusiasms."

(Photo: Ecco)

Author W. Caleb McDaniel won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his book 'Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America'. The book tells Henrietta Wood's unforgettable story as she was born into slavery in 1848 and fought for justuce. It is "A masterfully researched meditation on reparations based on the remarkable story of a 19th century woman who survived kidnapping and re-enslavement to sue her captor".

(Photo: Oxford University Press)

Jericho Brown won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 2020 for his poetry collection 'The Tradition'. His poems highlight racism and discrimination in the US history, which is prevalent even today. It also questions the true meaning of safety and freedom. It is "A collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence," reads a statement on Pulitzer Prize's website.

(Photo: Picador)

(Photo: Metropolitan Books)

The second Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is given to Anne Boyer for 'The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care'. The book is "An elegant and unforgettable narrative about the brutality of illness and the capitalism of cancer care in America," reads a statement on Pulitzer Prizes' website.

(Photo: Penguin)