Professor Yiyun Li of Princeton University won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for her 2025 memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow. She described the recognition as a “bittersweet honor.”
According to Li, the book was written during a difficult period in her life following the loss of both her younger and older sons to suicide.
“The book was written because I hold my faith in language, in thinking, and in carrying on despite the difficulties,” she said, adding that the prize affirmed her beliefs.
Li also shared that she was at home yesterday afternoon when colleagues and friends began sending congratulatory messages, leaving her overwhelmed and shocked.
The book also won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and was named a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.
Furthermore, it was included in The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2025, The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2025, and The Washington Post’s 50 notable nonfiction works of 2025.