Past Winners of The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

2023

Ben Rawlence for The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
(press release)

2022

Andrea Elliott for Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City
(press release)

2020

Rachel Louise Snyder for No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
 (press release)

2019

Shane Bauer for American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
 (press release)

2018

Masha Gessen for The Future is History
 (press release)

2017

Jane Mayer for Dark Money
video • press release

2016

Jill Leovy for Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
video • press release • photo gallery

2015

Anand Giridharadas for The True American; Murder and Mercy in Texas
video • press release • finalist audio clips • photo gallery

2014

Dan Fagin for Toms River
videopress releasephoto gallery
Audio and video from the public program: Uncovering the Truth: Long-form Journalism in the Age of Twitter

2013

Katherine Boo for Behind the Beautiful Forevers
BookTVpress releasephoto gallery

2012

Ellen Schultz for Retirement Heist
videopress releasephoto gallery

2011

Shane Harris for The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State
videopress releaseHuffington Postphoto gallery

2010

David Finkel for The Good Soldiers (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
videopress releaseHuffington Postphoto gallery

2009

Jane Mayer for The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday)
videopress release

2008

Charlie Savage for Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little Brown & Company)
video

2007

Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Alfred A. Knopf)

2006

George Packer for The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

2005

Jason DeParle for American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare (Viking)

2004

Dana Priest for The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military (W. W. Norton & Company)

2003

Keith Bradsher for High and Mighty: SUVs—The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way

2002

Nina Bernstein for The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care

2001

Elaine Sciolino, for Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran

2000

James Mann for About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton
Patrick Tyler for A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History

1999

Philip Gourevitch for We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda

1998

Patti Waldmeir for Anatomy of A Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

1997

David Quammen for The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

1996

Tina Rosenberg for The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

1995

Joseph Nocera for A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class

1994

David Remnick for Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

1993

Samuel Freedman for Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church

1992

Alex Kotlowitz for There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

1991

Nicholas Lemann for The Promised Land

1990

Thomas Friedman for From Beirut to Jerusalem

1989

Judy Woodruff for her series of television reports focusing on the Iran-Contra affair

1988

James Reston in recognition of his fifty-year contribution to journalism