Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

• 1988 – James Reston for fifty years of journalism
• 1989 – Judy Woodruff for television reporting of the Iran–Contra affair
• 1990 – Thomas Friedman for From Beirut to Jerusalem
• 1991 – Nicholas Lemann for The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
• 1992 – Alex Kotlowitz for There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
• 1993 – Samuel Freedman for Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church
• 1994 – David Remnick for Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
• 1995 – Joseph Nocera for A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class
• 1996 – Tina Rosenberg for The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
• 1997 – David Quammen for The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
• 1998 – Patti Waldmeir for Anatomy of A Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa
• 1999 – Philip Gourevitch for We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
• 2000 Joint winner: – James Mann for About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton
• 2000 Joint winner: – Patrick Tyler for A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History
• 2001 – Elaine Sciolino for Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran
• 2002 – Nina Bernstein for The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
• 2003 – Keith Bradsher for High and Mighty: SUVs--The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way
• 2004 – Dana Priest for The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military (W. W. Norton & Company)
• 2005 – Jason DeParle for American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare (Viking)
• 2006 – George Packer for The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• 2007 – Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Alfred A. Knopf)
• 2008 – Charlie Savage for Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little Brown & Company)
• 2009 – Jane Mayer for The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday)
• 2010 – David Finkel for The Good Soldiers (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• 2011 – Shane Harris for The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State
• 2012 – Ellen Schultz for Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers
• 2013 – Katherine Boo for Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
• 2014 – Dan Fagin for Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
• 2015 – Anand Giridharadas for The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas
• 2016 – Jill Leovy for Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
• 2017 – Jane Mayer for Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
• 2018 – Masha Gessen for The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
• 2019{{Cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/press/press-release/april-16-2019/shane-bauer-wins-2019-helen-bernstein-book-award-excellence|title=Shane Bauer Wins 2019 Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism|date=2019-04-16|access-date=2020-01-03|website=nypl.org}} – Shane Bauer for American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
• No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria by Rania Abouzeid
• The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy by Anna Clark
• Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold
• Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
• 2020 – Rachel Louise Snyder for No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us{{cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/press/press-release/may-12-2020/rachel-louise-snyder-wins-2020-helen-bernstein-book-award-excellence|title=Rachel Louise Snyder Wins the 2020 Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism|website=nypl.org|date=May 12, 2020|accessdate=May 21, 2021}}
• She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
• Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon
• A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century by Jason DeParle
• The Outlaw Ocean: Journey’s Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina
• 2022 - Andrea Elliott for Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City{{Cite web |title=Andrea Elliott's 'Invisible Child' Wins Bernstein Book Award |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/newsbrief/index.html?record=3710 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Publishers Weekly |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism |url=https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/awards/book-award-for-journalism |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=The New York Public Library}}
• The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias by Jessica Nordell
• The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die by Katie Engelhart
• Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang
• Planet Palm: How Palm Oil Ended Up in Everything and Endangered the World by Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
• 2023 - Ben Rawlence for The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth{{cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/press/ben-rawlence-wins-new-york-public-librarys-2023-helen-bernstein-award-excellence-journalism|title=Ben Rawlence Wins The New York Public Library’s 2023 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism |website=nypl.org|date=May 1, 2023|accessdate=May 3, 2024}}
• The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
• My Fourth Time We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route by Sally Hayden
• The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City by Nicholas Dawidoff
• Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of our Nation by Linda Villarosa
• 2024 - Patricia Evangelista for Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country{{cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/press/patricia-evangelista-wins-new-york-public-librarys-2024-helen-bernstein-award-excellence|title=Patricia Evangelista Wins The New York Public Library’s 2024 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism|website=nypl.org|date=May 2, 2024|accessdate=May 2, 2024}}
• Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
• How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death, and Dollars in American Medicine by Tom Mueller
• The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
• We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian
• 2025 -
• Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America's Energy Future by Jonathan Mingle
• On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America by Abrahm Lustgarten
• Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future by Vince Beiser
• Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Sick by Layal Liverpool
• They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh{{Cite web |title=Meet the 2025 Finalists for NYPL’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism |url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2025/02/05/meet-2025-finalists-nypls-bernstein-award-excellence-journalism |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=The New York Public Library |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/awards/book-award-for-journalism/past-winners List of past winners]

Category:Awards established in 1987

Category:American non-fiction literary awards

Category:1987 establishments in New York City

Category:New York Public Library

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