In 1994, while the Chicago Bureau Chief of "The New York Times", she became the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, winning the feature writing award for her coverage of the 1993 midwestern floods and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings. Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the book "Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003", edited by David Garlock.