About this list

Pulitzer Prize, 67 Books

The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.

Rough head-count of people who shape the result each year

5 subject-matter jurors who screen the entries and forward three titles.

19 Board members who cast the decisive votes.
So, a maximum of 24 people take part in the decision path for the Biography / Autobiography prize each cycle.

Names are not secret, just easy to overlook.

Jury names stay under wraps until winners are announced, then they’re displayed on each category’s web page (and occasionally turn up in press coverage or book-specific Wikipedia entries, as in the 2011 example above).

Board membership is public all year and archived from one cycle to the next.

This list is a yearly book award, and was added to this site over 12 years ago.