UK
Costa Book Awards
Formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, honoured books across multiple categories by authors resident in UK/Ireland. Discontinued in 2022.
Est. 1971 — 2022United Kingdom
fictiondebutpoetry+2
Prize: £30,000
0 winners recorded
Back to categories
Category Focus
Biography Literary Awards
Browse literary awards and notable books in biography, memoir-adjacent nonfiction, and major life writing.
Awards Tracked
3
Books Linked
21
Awards in Biography
Start with the award programs themselves, then jump into individual winners and related books below.
UK
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Britain's oldest literary award, administered by the University of Edinburgh.
Est. 1919United Kingdom
fictionbiography
Prize: £10,000
0 winners recordedOfficial Site
US
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Pulitzer Prize for distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
Est. 1917United States
biography
Prize: $15,000
Latest Winner (2025)
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts
21 winners recordedOfficial Site
Award-Winning Books in Biography
Browse the matching books in this category and jump directly into their book detail pages.
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Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
by Jason Roberts
1 award · through 2025
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig
1 award · through 2024
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage
1 award · through 2023
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
by Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly
1 award · through 2022
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
1 award · through 2021
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Sontag: Her Life and Work
by Benjamin Moser
1 award · through 2020
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
by Jeffrey C. Stewart
1 award · through 2019
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Caroline Fraser
1 award · through 2018
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
by Hisham Matar
1 award · through 2017
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
by William Finnegan
1 award · through 2016
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe
by David I. Kertzer
1 award · through 2015
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Margaret Fuller: A New American Life
by Megan Marshall
1 award · through 2014
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
by Tom Reiss
1 award · through 2013
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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George F. Kennan: An American Life
by John Lewis Gaddis
1 award · through 2012
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Washington: A Life
by Ron Chernow
1 award · through 2011
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
by T. J. Stiles
1 award · through 2010
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
by Jon Meacham
1 award · through 2009
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
by John Matteson
1 award · through 2008
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
by Debby Applegate
1 award · through 2007
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
1 award · through 2006
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
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de Kooning: An American Master
by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
1 award · through 2005
Pulitzer Prize for Biography