Monday, April 16, 2012

CARRYING THE BANNER: The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today--a few winners and finalists of note:
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer's series on violence in Philly's public schools wins the Public Service prize.
  • The Harrisburg Patriot-News wins the Local Reporting prize for its reporting on the Penn State football scandal.
  • No award for fiction this year, despite impressive finalists--Swamplandia! and The Pale King.
  • Drama prize is won by Water By The Spoonful, a relatively unknown play, with Other Desert Cities being a finalist.  (Not even mentioned as a finalist--Book of Mormon.)
  • In a rarity, a recent biography of Malcolm X wins the History Prize and is a finalist for the Biography prize.
Anything else we're missing?

13 comments:

  1. Adlai3:49 PM

    Congratulations to (the late and very lamented) Manning Marable - I haven't read the Malcolm X bio yet, but it's supposed to be fantastic. So too Richard White's new book.

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  2. Disappointing that there was no fiction award.  All three finalists seemed deserving.

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  3. Congratulations to Sarah Ganim, 24, for leading the Patriot-News' exhaustive coverage.  Where does one's career go from here?

    Also of note: both HuffPo and Politico win awards.<span> </span>

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  4. Yay George Kennan.

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  5. Emily W4:40 PM

    Interesting note: The Feature Writing award went to the author of a piece in Seattle about an attack/murder where one woman was killed while her partner escaped and testified at the attacker's trial. The woman who died was the sister of Broadway star Norbert Leo Butz -- he mentioned his sister in his Tony acceptance speech last year.

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  6. scottru4:48 PM

    Eli Sander's piece is incredible: give yourself a quiet room and some time to read it. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-bravest-woman-in-seattle/Content?oid=8640991

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  7. Professor Jeff5:36 PM

    John Lewis Gaddis started working on the Kennan biography in the early 1980s, when Kennan was 78. Their understanding was that Gaddis wouldn't publish the book until Kennan died. Kennan lived to be 101. Not sure I could have waited that long if I were Gaddis.

    Also, Marable's Malcolm X biography apparently got moved by the Pulitzer Board from Biography to History. It's not clear if that move was at the recommendation of the Biography and/or History juries, or if it was an executive decision by the Board. May have been some interesting politicking there.

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  8. RebeccaK5:54 PM

    That's an amazing story.  Thanks for the link.

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  9. Joseph J. Finn6:14 PM

    Thanks, Emily, for highlighting that; Eli Sanders did a wonderful piece of work with that.

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  10. Melissa R.10:51 PM

    Gah.  I would say thanks for the link except I had settled for the night and now I gotta get out of bed to wash the tears off my face.  And I need to find something funny to read because I cannot sleep with that being the last thing I think about. 

    Amazing story but oh so heartbreaking.

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  11. Sheila10:17 AM

    Thanks for sharing the link. After reading it, I found this piece written by the survivor of the attacks, who decided to write under her own name shortly before the sentencing.
    http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/i-would-like-you-to-know-my-nam/Content?oid=9434642

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  12. Marsha2:11 PM

    Thanks to all who posted these pieces. I am, of course, crying at my desk, but I'm glad I read those.

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  13. Melissa R.3:52 PM

    http://www.salon.com/2012/04/16/pulitzers_snub_fiction/singleton/

    salon.com commentary on the lack of a fiction pulitzer and the most likely contributing factors.

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