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Lukas prizes honor books on homelessness, the US Census and ancient India

NEW YORK (AP) — Books on homelessness, the U.S. Census and ancient India are among this year’s winners of prizes handed out by the J. Anthony Lukas Project, named for the late author and investigative journalist.

The winners were announced Tuesday by the project’s administrators, the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Jeff Hobbs’ “Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America” won the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor given for exemplifying “literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern.” The Mark Lynton Prize for history, a $10,000 award for combining “literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern,” was given to William Dalrymple’s “The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World.”

The Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards, for which each winner receives $25,000, went to danah boyd, for “Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the U.S. Census” and Karim Zidan for “In the Shadow of the Cage.”

The Lukas prizes were established in 1998. Previous winners include Robert Caro,Isabel Wilkerson and Jill Lepore.

Glen Hansard, Irish musician who won Oscar for ‘Once,’ dies in motorcycle crash

LONDON (AP) — Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who won an Academy Award for the 2007 film “Once,” died in a motorcycle crash on the outskirts of Dublin early Wednesday, his management said. He was 56. ATC Management told broadcaster RTE Hansard's family was “deeply shocked and heartbroken.” News of his death brought tributes from fellow musicians including Bruce Springsteen, who said on Instagram he was “heartbroken” at the loss of “a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man.” Irish police said a man in his 50s died in single-vehicle motorcycle crash in Lucan, on the western outskirts of the Irish capital, before 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The man, who they did not name, was treated at the scene but pronounced dead a short time later.
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