Evanston Author Daniel Kraus Wins Pulitzer Prize For Fiction: Report

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston novelist Daniel Kraus won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “Angel Down,” according to a Chicago Tribune report.

The Tribune reported that the novel follows American soldiers trapped on a French battlefield during World War I who find an angel caught in barbed wire.

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“I don’t even know what to say. I heard the way everyone heard, and I started getting texts and I thought at first I did something bad, then I thought someone was playing a joke. And now I’m just sort of beside myself,” Kraus told the Tribune.

The Pulitzer committee said that “Angel Down” was described as “a breathless novel of World War I, a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.”

Kraus has written or co-written 31 books since 2009, including “Whalefall,” two “Night of the Living Dead” books and novels with Guillermo del Toro.

Kraus told the Tribune, “It’s been a long and strange road,” and added that the award “makes it feel like there’s been at least a point to all of this.” His next novel, “The Sixth Nik,” is expected June 23.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune: Evanston’s prolific horror novelist Daniel Kraus wins Pulitzer for fiction