Two Texas journalists have been awarded 2026 Pulitzer Prizes.
Mark Lamster, architecture critic at The Dallas Morning News, won the Pulitzer for criticism. He was recognized for a body of work exploring how design, development and power intersect in Dallas.
Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, took the prize for feature writing for his first-person account of the 2025 Central Texas floods.
Parsley’s feature, “Where the River Took Us,” recounted how the Guadalupe River floodwaters engulfed his family’s home sweeping the structure and his family away. The piece explored grief, survival and the fragility of infrastructure in flood-prone communities. This is the magazine’s first Pulitzer.
Lamster’s criticism frequently examines the consequences of rapid urban growth, questioning who benefits and who is left out when cities evolve. He’s critiqued proposals to tear down Dallas City Hall and advocated for the building, designed by famed architect I.M. Pei.
The 2025 prize for criticism also went to an architecture critic, Alexandra Lange, of Bloomberg City Lab. Lamster told The Dallas Morning News that he hopes this “is a reflection of the importance of public discussion about the built and natural environment.”
The Pulitzer Prize recognizes accomplishments in journalism, literature, drama and music.
