Columbia University on Monday announced the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners, and did not award a prize in the fiction category this year.

The Pulitzer is the most prestigious award in American journalism and one of the most important in literature.

Here are the winners in the journalism categories:

Public Service - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Breaking News Reporting - The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News staff

Investigative Reporting - Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the Associated Press and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times

Explanatory Reporting - David Kocieniewski of The New York Times

Local Reporting - Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News staff, Harrisburg, Pa.

National Reporting - David Wood of The Huffington Post

International Reporting - Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times

Feature Writing - Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly

Commentary - Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

Criticism - Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe

Editorial Writing - No award

Editorial Cartooning - Matt Wuerker of Politico

Breaking News Photography - Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse

Feature Photography - Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post

The winners in the letters, drama and music categories are:

Fiction - No award

Drama - "Water by the Spoonful" by Quiara Alegría Hudes

History - "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," by the late Manning Marable (Viking)

Biography - "George F. Kennan: An American Life," by John Lewis Gaddis (The Penguin Press)

Poetry - "Life on Mars" by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press)

General Nonfiction - "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern," by Stephen Greenblatt (W.W. Norton and Company)

Music - "Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts" by Kevin Puts (Aperto Press)

Contributed by International Business Times