The Sidney Hillman Foundation has selected $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, for the 2016 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism. The prize will be awarded on May 3 at the 66th annual Hillman Prize Presentation and Reception in New York City.
Recent Hillman Prize book winners include The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson; Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding; and The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse.
Hillman Prize judges include Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent at The Atlantic; Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at The New Yorker; Alix Freedman, global editor, ethics and standards for Reuters; Hendrik Hertzberg, a staff writer for The New Yorker; Harold Meyerson, executive editor of The American Prospect; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation.
The Sidney Hillman Foundation, established in 1950 by the founding president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union of America, honors investigative reporting and deep storytelling in the service of the common good.
H. Luke Shaefer is an associate professor of social work and public policy. His research focuses on the effectiveness of the United States social safety net in serving low-wage workers and economically disadvantaged families. He is author, with Kathryn Edin, of $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.