2007 Pulitzer Prizes

April 18, 2007 9:46 AM

The 2007 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced. My favorites for 2007 are International Reporting, National Reporting, Editorial Cartooning (one example, and another), and Breaking News Photo. The Pulitzer site archive is an amazing source of browsing material. Unfortunately, it is not the easiest site to navigate. So here are some previous winners: 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000
posted by McGuillicuddy (23 comments total)

The Wall Street Journal won for Public Service. It's like the punchline to a particularly unrealistic joke.
posted by zarq at 9:57 AM on April 18, 2007

Thread on 2006 photography winners, which are most definitely worth checking out if you haven't yet.
posted by PhatLobley at 10:01 AM on April 18, 2007

The Road is a deserving winner. Spectacular novel.
posted by kosem at 10:02 AM on April 18, 2007

Mostly good stuff. W/r/t The Road – I've been cautiously delighted by all the press Cormac McCarthy has been getting lately (Oprah's Book Club, now this). I think it's long overdue.
posted by thermogenesis at 10:12 AM on April 18, 2007

The Road is a deserving winner.

Couple other new ones like it: Finn and Coal Black Horse.
posted by stbalbach at 10:13 AM on April 18, 2007

I second PhotLobley. And I'll point out a thread about the 2005 feature photography winner. I just looked at the photos again, remembered the story, and sit here teary-eyed.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 10:18 AM on April 18, 2007

What a great photograph. It shows you how important composition and framing really are. The way the shot is set up, you don't realize there is a wall of cops with shields extending back into the photo because they are obscured by the cops in front. Furthermore, shoving the woman to the extreme right (cropping out whatever people are behind her) makes the image powerful and evocative.
posted by Pastabagel at 10:26 AM on April 18, 2007

Ornette Coleman! I didn't know they gave Pulitzers for music. Cool. (not like I've heard it, or anything)
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:35 AM on April 18, 2007

China media blog Danwei on the WSJ win for their reporting on the Middle Kingdom.
posted by Abiezer at 10:38 AM on April 18, 2007

I enjoyed Walt Handelsman's Pulitzer page. Oz was great. I looked up his Newsday page where I found a Barack Obama counterpoint. I think I'll just get another cup of coffee and have fun, thank you.
posted by taosbat at 11:00 AM on April 18, 2007

Greenwald on Charlie Savage's reporting on Bush's signing statements.
posted by homunculus at 11:09 AM on April 18, 2007

The Pulitzer for music is not highly regarded, and hasn't been for decades--essentially awarded as the result of the worst kind of in-breeding, academically-secluded process, and has consistently ignored some of the most significant American musicians of the past 50 years.

I'm a conductor, and I commission and perform new music regularly, collaborate with composers, am keenly aware of musical creative-types in the U.S.--classical and not--etc., and my reaction to winners consistently is: who?

(Ornette Coleman, sure; John Adams and John Corigliano, great. But Melinda Wagner? Yehudi Wyner? Paul Moravec? Lewis Spratlan? And still no award for Steve Reich?? Bizarre.)

It's a shame, really, especially because the prize is so esteemed in other fields.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:34 AM on April 18, 2007

Does this mean that McCarthy will finally have to speak publicly? I've been waiting anxiously to see him Oprah and it never seems to be scheduled.
posted by xmutex at 12:00 PM on April 18, 2007

I was really glad to see Jonathan Gold on that list. He writes for LA Weekly and he often appears to discuss restaurants on the KCRW radio show/podcast Good Food. I haven't lived in Southern California for 12+ years but I still like listening to him and reading him.
posted by veggieboy at 12:09 PM on April 18, 2007

Now I feel bad for never having taken a poetry class with Natasha Tretheway when I was at Emory. I hear she is wonderful though.

I recently read The Road. I'm not surprised it won... Cormac McCarthy is a brilliant author... but... still. It's such a sad and plodding book at times.
posted by crackingdes at 1:31 PM on April 18, 2007

As if you needed any more convincing to join Emusic.com, I got "Sound Grammar" from there. I very rarely buy jazz, but I'll download it occasionally. I haven't regretted this download.
posted by bovious at 1:57 PM on April 18, 2007

I just cried at these. Absolutely magnificent.
posted by paperpete at 2:08 PM on April 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Agreed with you paperpete. I watched my 11 year old brother and my mother do exactly the same thing many years ago...I remember it just like yesterday and I can see that the love between a mother and her child never changes.
posted by Jikido at 2:28 PM on April 18, 2007

And still no award for Steve Reich?? Bizarre.
They're just afraid that if they invite him to the awards ceremony he might come out to show them
come out to show them
comeout to show them
comeoutto show them
comeouttoshowthem
comeouttshowthem
comeoutshowthem
comeoutshowthem
comeoutshowthem
that he's willing to give a phased acceptance speech.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 2:29 PM on April 18, 2007

One interesting thing about Ornette winning for Sound Grammar is that he wasn't originally nominated. A couple of the judges went out, bought the CD and, using their judgely superpowers, they entered it into the competition.

Apparently, as LooseFilter suggests, the music Pulitzer had devolved into some sort of inbred John Williams clusterfuck. These judges wanted to get Ornette into the mix before he gets the Peter O'Toole lifetime achievement award instead of the real thing.

And besides, Sound Grammar is the shit.
posted by beelzbubba at 3:04 PM on April 18, 2007

Oh my god, paperpete. I was not prepared for that.
posted by veggieboy at 3:31 PM on April 18, 2007

Oh my god, paperpete. I was not prepared for that.

Neither was I. Even though I knew right away I would be crying at work, I couldn't stop.
posted by peep at 3:40 PM on April 18, 2007

What's up with the kerning on that banner graphic? Also, I was happy to see that Coltrane was also recognized, albeit posthumously. Who knew 2007 would be such a big year for jazz saxophonists?
posted by danblaker at 3:51 PM on April 18, 2007