Daniel Kraus and David Remnick on "Angel Down"

Chicago-based author Daniel Kraus won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel "Angel Down," a breathless World War I story that blends allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence. On this episode, Daniel is interviewed by David Remnick, Pulitzer Board member and editor of The New Yorker, to discuss how he discovered art at the video store, his varied and prolific writing career and why he continues to challenge himself as a writer.

A transcript to the episode is available here.

This season, each monthly episode of the Pulitzer on the Road Podcast will feature a conversation with a Pulitzer Prize winner from a different state along the tour of the new Pulitzer Prizes exhibition. Pulitzer on the Road: Prize-Winning Works that Inform, Empower & Inspire was developed in partnership with the American Library Association and will travel to 20 public libraries over two years. You can find out more about the exhibition and tour schedule here. 

You can see Daniel Kraus at the exhibition launch for the Pulitzer on the Road Traveling Exhibition in Chicago on Wednesday October 14, 2026 at 6pm at the Chicago Public Library (Harold Washington Library Center). He will be in conversation with 2025 Fiction winner Percival Everett, 2026 Biography winner Amanda Vaill and 2022 Breaking News Photography winner Jon Cherry. Pulitzer Board member Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and a 2018 Commentary finalist, will moderate the panel.