Pulitzer Prizes For 2019 Announced

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The Pulitzer Prize for 2019 for excellence in literary achievements, newspaper journalism, and musical composition was announced.

JOURNALISM

The South Florida Sun Sentinel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for Public Service, widely considered the most prestigious prize. It received the award for chronicling the massacre of 17 students and staff members at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018. It did a detailed analysis of the inefficiency of the school and local officials that resulted in the loss of life.

This was the second time that the Sun Sentinel received the awad; the first was in 2013.

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette received the award for Journalism in the Breaking News Reporting category for its “compassionate coverage” of the deadly shooting of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill on 27th October 2018.

David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times received the Pulitzer for Explanatory Reporting for their detailed and extensive investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances. The investigation also revealed previously undisclosed tax returns.

David Barstow created a record by winning his fourth Pulitzer, the first for any reporter.

LETTERS, DRAMA, AND MUSIC

The Pulitzer for Fiction was awarded to Richard Powers for ‘The Overstory,’ one of the most renowned novels of 2018. It is an epic about the life and death of trees and how nine Americans come together to address the issue of the destruction of trees and forests.

The Pulitzer for Biography was awarded to Jeffrey C. Stewart for ‘The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke.’ The book gives a definitive biography of Alain Locke, famously called the father of the Harlem Renaissance.

Aretha Franklin was posthumously awarded a special citation for her “indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.” With this honour, she became the first female performer to have been bestowed with this honour. She has widely rated as the greatest singer of all time, winning 18 Grammys in her lifetime.

Here is a list of the winners.

JOURNALISM       
CATEGORY WINNERS
Public Service South Florida Sun Sentinel
For exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Breaking News Reporting Staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For immersive, compassionate coverage of the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief.
Investigative Reporting Matt Hamilton, Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times
For consequential reporting on a University of Southern California gynecologist accused of violating hundreds of young women for more than a quarter-century.
Explanatory Reporting David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times
For an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges.
Local Reporting Staff of The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.
For a damning portrayal of the state’s discriminatory conviction system, including a Jim Crow-era law, that enabled Louisiana courts to send defendants to jail without jury consensus on the accused’s guilt.
National Reporting Staff of The Wall Street Journal
For uncovering President Trump’s secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him, and the web of supporters who facilitated the transactions, triggering criminal inquiries and calls for impeachment.
International Reporting Maggie Michael, Maad al-Zikry and Nariman El-Mofty of Associated Press
For a revelatory yearlong series detailing the atrocities of the war in Yemen, including theft of food aid, deployment of child soldiers and torture of prisoners.
Staff of Reuters, with notable contributions from Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo
For expertly exposing the military units and Buddhist villagers responsible for the systematic expulsion and murder of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, courageous coverage that landed its reporters in prison.
Feature Writing Hannah Dreier of ProPublica
For a series of powerful, intimate narratives that followed Salvadoran immigrants on New York’s Long Island whose lives were shattered by a botched federal crackdown on the international criminal gang MS-13.
Commentary Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For bold columns that exposed the malfeasance and injustice of forcing poor rural Missourians charged with misdemeanor crimes to pay unaffordable fines or be sent to jail.
Criticism Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post
For trenchant and searching reviews and essays that joined warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.
Editorial Writing Brent Staples of The New York Times
For editorials written with extraordinary moral clarity that charted the racial fault lines in the United States at a polarizing moment in the nation’s history.
Editorial Cartooning Darrin Bell, freelancer
For beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.
Breaking News Photography Photography Staff of Reuters
For a vivid and startling visual narrative of the urgency, desperation and sadness of migrants as they journeyed to the U.S. from Central and South America. 
Feature Photography Lorenzo Tugnoli of The Washington Post
For brilliant photo storytelling of the tragic famine in Yemen, shown through images in which beauty and composure are intertwined with devastation.
LETTERS, DRAMA, AND MUSIC           
Fiction
The Overstory, by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton)
An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them.
Drama Fairview, by Jackie Sibblies Drury
A hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices.
History Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon & Schuster)
A breathtaking history that demonstrates the scope of Frederick Douglass’ influence through deep research on his writings, his intellectual evolution and his relationships.
Biography The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Oxford University Press)
A panoramic view of the personal trials and artistic triumphs of the father of the Harlem Renaissance and the movement he inspired.
Poetry
Be With, by Forrest Gander (New Directions)
A collection of elegies that grapple with sudden loss, and the difficulties of expressing grief and yearning for the departed.
General Notification Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A classic American story, grippingly told, of an Appalachian family struggling to retain its middle-class status in the shadow of destruction wreaked by corporate fracking.
Music p r i s m, by Ellen Reid
A bold new operatic work that uses sophisticated vocal writing and striking instrumental timbres to confront difficult subject matter: the effects of sexual and emotional abuse. Libretto by Roxie Perkins.
 SPECIAL CITATIONS  
Special Awards and Citations Aretha Franklin
For her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Md.
A special citation to honor the journalists, staff and editorial board of the Capital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief. The citation comes with a $100,000 bequest by the Pulitzer Board to be used to further the newspaper’s journalistic mission.

The list has been compiled from here.

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