this year's winner is author and journalist andrea elliott for her book invisible child poverty survival and hope in an american city. andrea is an investigative reporter for the new york times and the recipient of a pulitzer prize a george polk award and overseas press club award and other honors most importantly. she's a graduate of columbia journalism school. the judges citation reads invisible child is a tour de force of of reporting and meticulous and unflinching depiction of intergenerational american poverty. andrea elliott spent eight years following her subject 11 year old dasani and her parents is seven siblings in and out of new york city homeless shelters court schools welfare offices and ultimately the pennsylvania boarding school that offers the first chance of hope exemplifying the best of the lucas tradition elliott exposes the granular texture of daily life with deep empathy the punishing sameness of material want and in the process paints sweeping portrait of contemporary american life still marked by prejudices and injustices set in motion in the past. as the number of

this year's winner is all around journalist andrea elliott for her book invisible child poverty, survival utopian and and hope in anamerican city. the investigative reporter for "the new york times" and the recipient of a pulitzer prize in overseas press club award and other honors. a graduate of columbia journalism school. the judge's citation reads it is a force of immersive reporting and meticulous unflinching depiction of intergenerational anamerican poverty. she spent eight years following her subject and her parents and seven siblings. the new york city homeless shelters welfare offices and ultimately the pennsylvania boarding school that offers the first chance of hope. exemplifying the rest of the tradition, elliott exposes granular textures of daily life with deep empathy the sameness of material want and in the process ofpi paints a sweeping portrait of contemporary american life marked by prejudices and injustices set in motion in the past. this is both the demand and deserves our attention. congratulations. [applause] [applause] this year's finalist for the book prize is award