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
video • press release • photo 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
BookTV • press release • photo gallery
2012
Ellen Schultz for Retirement Heist
video • press release • photo gallery
2011
Shane Harris for The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State
video • press release • Huffington Post • photo gallery
2010
David Finkel for The Good Soldiers (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
video • press release • Huffington Post • photo 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)
video • press 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