Our Pulitzer Prize Winner: THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US by Brian Goldstone
On Monday, May 4, the Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious awards in American letters, were announced by Administrator Marjorie Miller via livestream. We’re thrilled to share that Penguin Random House author Brian Goldstone‘s THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US: Working and Homeless in America (Crown; Random House Audio) was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Each year, the Pulitzer Prizes are awarded by Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Eligible titles include books first published in the U.S. during 2026. More than 2,500 entries are submitted annually, all competing to be a finalist in one of the 23 categories across journalism, books, drama and music. Behind the scenes, over 100 judges serve on 22 juries, carefully reviewing entries and narrowing each category down to three finalists. This rigorous, months-long process reflects both the volume and quality of the work considered.
To date, PRH has accumulated 144 Pulitzer Prize winners, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Josh Steinbeck, Ron Chernow, Anne Applebaum, Colson Whitehead, and many. many more.
Congratulations to Brian and our colleagues at Crown on this remarkable recognition, including Brian’s editor, Amanda Cook, who collaborated closely with Brian for many years, and his publicist, Penny Simon, who worked tirelessly to bring THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US the attention it deserves.
“Through empathetic and intimate reporting, Brian Goldstone reveals the true scale and severity of American homelessness, which has become a mass condition of the working poor, especially in rapidly gentrifying cities,” Amanda Cook, VP & Director, Editorial
Crown said. “The stories of the families he follows are unforgettable, and the book has already begun to re-shape policy conversations by bringing the hidden homeless—the millions of Americans living in cars, motels, or doubled up in overcrowded apartments—out into the light.”
Our 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winner:
General Nonfiction
Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend—the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America.
The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.
In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country’s “Black Mecca” after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children—and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation’s working homeless.
We’d also like to give a warm congratulations to our seven Pulitzer Prize Finalists:
General Nonfiction
A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack.
Fiction
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love.
In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.
History
From the author of the landmark bestseller LAWRENCE IN ARABIA comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today’s global unrest.
Biography
The first biography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern environmental movement, by award-winning writer Lance Richardson.
Memoir or Autobiography
In this wondrously unusual memoir, a woman retreats into her shell in the aftermath of her divorce, and must choose between the pleasures and the perils of a closed-up life—a transformation fable from an acclaimed 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree.
Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners”.
Congratulations to our talented teams who brought these stories to life!