| Pulitzer Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Excellence in newspaper journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition |
| Presented by | Columbia University |
| Country | United States |
| First awarded | 1917 |
| Official website | http://www.pulitzer.org/ |
The Pulitzer Prize /ˈpʊlɨtsər/[1] is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer in the year 1917 and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award.[2] The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal, which always goes to a newspaper, although an individual may be named in the citation.
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The Pulitzer Prize does not automatically evaluate all applicable works in the media, but only those that have been entered with a $50 entry fee[3] (one per desired entry category). Entries must fit in at least one of the specific prize categories, and cannot simply gain entrance on the grounds of having general literary or compositional properties.[3] Works can also only be entered into a maximum of two prize categories, regardless of their properties.
Each year, 102 judges are selected to "serve on 20 separate juries" for the 21 award categories (one jury for both photography awards). Most of the juries consist of five members, except for those of "public service, investigative reporting, beat reporting, feature writing and commentary categories", which have seven members.[4] For each award category, a jury makes three nominations. The board selects the winner by majority vote from the nominations or bypass the nominations and select a different entry with a 75% majority vote. The board can also vote no award. The board gets no compensation for its work. The jurors in letters, music, and drama get a $2000 honorarium for the year, while each chair gets $2500.[4]
Anyone whose work has been submitted is called an "entrant". The jury selects a small group of "nominated finalists" and announces them together with the winner for each category.
Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer gave money in his will to Columbia University to start a journalism school and establish the Prize. $250,000 was allocated to the prize and scholarships.[5] He specified "four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one in education, and four traveling scholarships."[4] After his death, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded June 4, 1917; they are now announced each April.
Recipients of the Pulitzer Prize include:
Recipients of more than one Pulitzer Prize include Robert Caro (twice) and David McCullough (twice) for Biography; Robert Frost (four times), Edwin Arlington Robinson (three times), Archibald MacLeish (three times), and Robert Lowell (twice) for Poetry; Gene Weingarten (twice) for Feature Writing; Thomas L. Friedman (three times) for International Reporting and Commentary; Margaret Leech (twice) for History; Eugene O'Neill (four times), Edward Albee (three times), and August Wilson (twice) for Drama; Barbara W. Tuchman (twice) for General Non-Fiction; Norman Mailer (twice) for Fiction and Non-Fiction; and William Faulkner (twice), John Updike (twice), John Steinbeck (three times), Gian Carlo Menotti (twice) for music composition, Samuel Barber (twice) for music composition, Elliot Carter (twice), for music composition; and Booth Tarkington (twice) for Novel / Fiction. (This category's name was changed in 1948 from Novel to Fiction.)
Both Eugene O'Neill and Booth Tarkington accomplished the feat of winning the prize twice in a four-year period. Gene Weingarten won twice in a three-year period (2008 and 2010). Thornton Wilder, Carl Sandburg, and Robert Penn Warren are notable for winning prizes in more than one category. Wilder won once in the Novel category and twice in Drama, Warren won once for Fiction and twice for Poetry, and Sandburg won once for Biography and twice for Poetry.
| The Pulitzer Prizes |
| Joseph Pulitzer • Pulitzers by year Pulitzer winners |
| Journalism: |
| Letters and drama: |
| Other prizes: |
Awards are made in categories relating to newspaper journalism, arts, and letters and fiction. Only published reports and photographs by United States-based newspapers or daily news organizations are eligible for the journalism prize. Beginning in 2007, "an assortment of online elements will be permitted in all journalism categories except for the competition's two photography categories, which will continue to restrict entries to still images."[6] In December 2008 it was announced that for the first time content published in online-only news sources would be considered.[7]
The current Pulitzer Prize category definitions in the 2008 competition, in the order they are awarded, are:
There are six categories in letters and drama:
There is one prize given for music:
There have also been a number of Special Citations and Awards.
In addition to the prizes, Pulitzer travelling fellowships are awarded to four outstanding students of the Graduate School of Journalism as selected by the faculty.
The 19-member board consists mostly of major newspaper editors and executives, along with four academics including the president of Columbia University and the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The administrator and the dean cannot vote. The board elects its own members for a three-year term (excluding the dean and the administrator). Members of the board and the juries are selected with close attention "given to professional excellence and affiliation, as well as diversity in terms of gender, ethnic background, geographical distribution and size of newspaper." Each year, the chair rotates to the most senior member.[8] The board makes all prize decisions.[4]
The 2009–2010 board members were:[9]
Over the years, awards have been discontinued either because the field of the award has been expanded to encompass other areas, the award been renamed because the common terminology changed, or the award has become obsolete, such as the prizes for telegraphic reporting, which was based on the old technology of the telegram.
An example of a writing field that has been expanded was the former Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which has been changed to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which also includes short stories, novellas, novelettes, and fictional poetry, as well as novels.
To find, for example, all the winners for investigative reporting, you have to also look back at the prize for local investigative specialized reporting, which previously was the prize for local reporting, no edition time.
Discontinued or merged categories include:
1917: + Biography or Autobiography; + History; + Editorial Writing; + Reporting
1918: + Novel; + Drama; + Public Service
1922: + Poetry; + Editorial Cartooning
1929: + Correspondence
1942: + Photography; + Telegraphic Reporting—National; + Telegraphic Reporting—International
1943: + Music
1948: − Correspondence; − Novel + Fiction; − Reporting + Local reporting; − Telegraphic Reporting—National + National Reporting; − Telegraphic Reporting—International + International Reporting
1953: − Local reporting + Local Reporting, Edition Time; + Local Reporting, No Edition Time
1962: + General Non-Fiction
1964: − Local Reporting, Edition Time + Local General or Spot News Reporting; − Local Reporting, No Edition Time + Local Investigative Specialized Reporting
1968: − Photography; + Feature Photography; + Spot News Photography
1970: + Commentary; + Criticism
1979: + Feature Writing
1985: − Local General or Spot News Reporting + General News Reporting; − Local Investigative Specialized Reporting; + Investigative Reporting; + Specialized Reporting; + Explanatory Journalism
1991: − General News Reporting + Spot News Reporting; − Specialized Reporting + Beat Reporting
1998: − Spot News Reporting + Breaking News Reporting; − Explanatory Journalism + Explanatory Reporting
2000: − Spot News Photography + Breaking News Photography
2007: − Beat Reporting + Local reporting
Some critics of the Pulitzer Prize have accused the organization of favoring those who support liberal causes or oppose conservative causes. Syndicated columnist L. Brent Bozell said that the Pulitzer Prize has a "liberal legacy", particularly in its prize for commentary.[10] He pointed to a 31-year period in which only five conservatives won prizes for commentary. The claim is also supported by a statement from the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, Kathleen Parker: "It's only because I'm a conservative basher that I'm now recognized."[11]
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