The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, established in 1999, is a literary award "given annually to aid in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern." The prize is given by the Nieman Foundation and by the Columbia University School of Journalism and is intended to "assist in closing the gap between the time and money an author has and the time and money that finishing a book requires.
Every year, one or two award winners receive an award of at least $25,000, and a finalist may receive a $5,000 award. Shortlisted books, introduced in 2016, receive no monetary award.
Recipients Titles listed below are the named titles in the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards documents. Because the books are listed as in-progress, the book titles may have changed after publication. When applicable, the published book has been linked. +Award winners and finalistsYearAuthorTitleResultRef.1999The Best Years of Their Lives: One Town’s Veterans and How They Changed the World Winner2000James TobinWork of the Wind: A Remarkable Family, an Overlooked Genius, and the Race for Flight WinnerFinalist2001A Need to Know: Inside the Warren CommissionWinnerFinalist2002On DamsWinnerFinalist2003Mapping the New World: An Inquiry into the Meaning of SprawlWinnerFinalist2004Slavery Inc.WinnerFinalist2005Home FiresWinnerFinalist2006Emily Post and the Rise of Practical FeminismWinnerFinalist2007Twelve Condemned to Die: Scipio Africanus Jones and The Struggle for Justice That Remade a NationWinnerFinalist2008The Means of ReproductionWinnerFinalist2009Yellow Dirt: The Betrayal of the NavajosWinner2010Ghetto Ball: A Coach, His Team, and the Struggle of an American CityWinnerFinalist2011Big Little Man: The Asian Male at the Dawn of the Asian CenturyWinnerFinalistBreasts: A Natural and Unnatural HistoryFinalist2012The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a DisasterWinnerFinalist2013Factory ManWinnerFinalist2014When Yellow Was Black: The untold story of the first fight for desegregation in Southern schoolsWinnerFinalist2015Liquid Desert: Life and Death of the Great LakesWinnerFinalist2016Separate: A Story of Race, Ambition and the Battle That Brought Legal Segregation to AmericaWinnerFinalistShortlist2017KochlandWinnerThe NewcomersFinalistShortlist2018Soul Full of Coal Dust: The True Story of An Epic Battle for JusticeWinnerNo Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill UsEyes in the SkyShortlistLightning FlowersNobody's Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and the History of the Insanity Defense2019Let the Lord Sort Them: Texas and the Death Penalty's Rise and Fall in AmericaWinnerMara: The Making of the MS13Made in China: How an Engineer Ended Up in a Chinese Gulag Making Products for KmartShortlistThis Is All I Got: One Woman’s Desperate Year in the New Gilded AgeLet the Record Show: ACT UP and the Enduring Relationship of AIDS2020Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and the Future of FoodWinnerAmerican Caliph: The True Story of the Hanafi Siege, America’s First Homegrown Islamic Terror AttackBeloved Beasts: The Story of Conservation and the Fight to Protect Life on EarthShortlistLet the Record Show: A Political History of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP, NY 1987-1993Foxconned: How the Mindless Pursuit of Good Jobs Destroys Homes, Wastes Billions and Enriches the Few2021Addiction, Inc.: How the Corporate Takeover of America’s Treatment Industry Created a Profitable EpidemicWinnerDiary of a MisfitThe Movement Made UsShortlistHouse of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens — and Changed the WorldThe Mother of All Things: On Climate Change, the Stories We Tell, and a Journey to the Edge of Antarctica2022We Were Once a Family: The Hart Murder-Suicide and the System Failing Our KidsWinnerThe Life: Sex, Work, and Love in AmericaAmerican Scare: A Cold War in the Sunshine StateFinalistDisillusioned: How the Suburbs and Their Schools Undermine The American DreamThe Prince and the Revolutionary: Children of War2023The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American FamilyWinnerUncivil: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New Battle for America's SchoolsShortlist2024 Body Weather: Notes on Illness in the AnthropoceneWinnerThe Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company2025ShortlistRutter: The Story of an American UnderclassShortlistBetter Americans: In Search of My Family’s Past in America’s Concentration CampsShortlistWe Want Them Alive: The True Story of a Massacre on the Border, and the Mothers Who Exposed a U.S. Deal that Trained the KillersShortlistLife or Death: Justice and Mercy in the Age of the School ShooterShortlist2026Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the U.S. CensusWinnerIn the Shadow of the CageWinner
See also
J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Mark Lynton History Prize
References