Finalist: Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
A rich and surprising new telling of the journey of the iconic American soldier whose death turns out not to have been the main point of his life. (Moved by the Board to the History category.)
Winners
Prize Winner in Biography in 2016:
William Finnegan
A finely crafted memoir of a youthful obsession that has propelled the author through a distinguished writing career.
Biography
Finalists
Nominated as finalists in Biography in 2016:
Elizabeth Alexander
A prose elegy and love story told in a lyrical voice that carries the author and her readers across the difficult terrain from grief to consolation.
The Jury
The Jury
Annette Gordon-Reed(Chair)*
Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History; Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of History
Michael Kazin
Author and Professor of History
Linda Leavell
Professor Emerita
Winners in Biography
David I. Kertzer
An engrossing dual biography that uses recently opened Vatican archives to shed light on two men who exercised nearly absolute power over their realms.
Megan Marshall
A richly researched book that tells the remarkable story of a 19th century author, journalist, critic and pioneering advocate of women's rights who died in a shipwreck.
Tom Reiss
A compelling story of a forgotten swashbuckling hero of mixed race whose bold exploits were captured by his son, Alexander Dumas, in famous 19th century novels.
John Lewis Gaddis
An engaging portrait of a globetrotting diplomat whose complicated life was interwoven with the Cold War and America's emergence as the world's dominant power.
2016 Prize Winners
William Finnegan
A finely crafted memoir of a youthful obsession that has propelled the author through a distinguished writing career.
T.J. Stiles
A rich and surprising new telling of the journey of the iconic American soldier whose death turns out not to have been the main point of his life. (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.)
Peter Balakian
Poems that bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that undergird a global age of danger and uncertainty.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a "man of two minds" -- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States.