Book about Janesville, Wis., wins major prize

The winners and finalists of the J. Anthony Lukas awards were announced this morning by Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. The awards go to outstanding works of nonfiction, and will be presented at a ceremony in May.

This year's winner of the of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize will go to Amy Goldstein, a reporter for the Washington Post, for her book, "Janesville: An American Story." The book looks at the ripple effect throughout a region after the General Motors assembly plant was closed in 2008. Goldstein's book also won the Financial Times Best Book of the Year award. The judges' citation says, in part, "With vast sweep and stunning specificity ... 'Janesville' chronicles the dissolution of the middle class in one Midwestern community. ... [It is] a triumph of narrative nonfiction in the tradition of J. Anthony Lukas." The finalist for the Book Prize was Jessica Bruder, author of "Nomadland." Her book examines the new transient population of workers, primarily elder and retired folk, who move from town to town following seasonal jobs. The Mark Lynton History Prize went to Stephen Kotkin for his biofraphy, "Stalin: Waiting for Hitler." The finalist was Caroline Fraser for her biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Prairie Fires." Fraser's book won the National Book Critics Circle award for biography earlier this month. And the award for works-in-progress go to Chris Hamby for "Soul Full of Coal Dust: The True Story of an Epic Battle for Justice," to be published by Little, Brown, and Rachel Louise Snyder's "No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know about Violance Can Kill Us," to be published by Bloomsbury.