Isabel Wilkerson won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, specifically for her profile of an inner city child and her coverage of the Mississippi floods.

At the time, she was the Chicago bureau chief of the New York Times. She is known for her aggressive and provocative journalistic style. When covering the floods, Wilkerson strayed from larger cities and covered the destruction of a small-town cemetery, a story her newspaper ran on the front page.

Wilkerson has also written many articles on inner-city youth and the effects of welfare, exploring topics such as crack-dealing, guns on the street, and street-wise youth. Other articles have looked at the causes of violence. One of the most striking of her pieces is the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of 10-year-old Nicholas, who grew up in Chicago. She attended school with him and spent hours at his home, watching him interact with his family. Her story was not delivered through quotes, but through narration and observation.

A contributing writer for Essence magazine, Wilkerson also writes many pieces about the perception of blacks in our society. In one memorable article titled "South African Sojourn" (Essence, May 1995), what she found in South Africa reminded her of the changes and experiences that black Americans have undergone. She writes: "Oppression is oppression, and it functions much the same in both countries."

She has also written many pieces on the failure of the welfare system. In a story published February 18, 1995, she wrote: " [I]t is the children who will suffer the men will come after the women and blame them for the punitive actions of the state the answer is jobs for the men and a continued safety net for children whose mothers cannot find jobs."

Wilkerson believes strongly in the power of the written word. In a 1997 speech at the University of Chicago, she said: "Broadcasts are the appetizers to the main course of newspapers."

She also believes strongly in the need for unbiased reporting and writing.

"The press needs to be more fair and balanced in their writing, combining tone and accuracy to ensure that readers are forming their own opinions rather than perpetuating that of the writer," she said at the same event. In addition to her Pulitzer, Wilkerson won the 1993 George Polk award for regional reporting and a National Association of Black Journalists "Journalist of the Year" award the next year.

She is currently on leave from the Times, researching and writing a book on the migration of African-Americans from the South to the North. She lives outside Chicago.