No Pulitzer Prize was awarded for breaking news this year. We’re thinking we, the media, blew it by incorrectly breaking the death of an elected official and outsourcing our breaking news to entire nations-in-revolt of citizen journalists. Then again, ProPublica won for an investigation which never appeared in print and social networking featured prominently in the winning fiction, A Visit From the Goon Squad, so maybe the Internet hasn’t completely murdered the written word. Oh but we all just crashed the Pulitzer website. Call it a wash. Full awards below.
PUBLIC SERVICE – Los Angeles Times
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING – No Award
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING – Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
EXPLANATORY REPORTING – Mark Johnson, Kathleen, Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar and Alison Sherwood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
LOCAL REPORTING – Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim of the Chicago Sun-Times
NATIONAL REPORTING – Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING – Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry of The New York Times
FEATURE WRITING – Amy Ellis Nutt of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.
COMMENTARY – David Leonhardt of The New York Times
CRITICISM – Sebastian Smee of The Boston Globe
EDITORIAL WRITING – Joseph Rago of The Wall Street Journal
EDITORIAL CARTOONING – Mike Keefe of The Denver Post
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY – Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn and Ricky Carioti of The Washington Post
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times
FICTION – “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A. Knopf)
DRAMA – “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris
HISTORY – “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” by Eric Foner (W. W. Norton & Company)
BIOGRAPHY – “Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press)
POETRY – “The Best of It: New and Selected Poems” by Kay Ryan (Grove Press)
GENERAL NONFICTION – “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)
MUSIC – “Madame White Snake'” by Zhou Long, premiered on February 26, 2010 by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.
kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel
