Courtesy of gawker.com
The winners of the 2011 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Many people are familiar with the awards for journalism but Pulitzer Prizes are also awarded in music, drama, and—of interest to this article—letters. This year produced many strong candidates in each of the categories and the winners certainly measure up with the best of this year’s releases. Some were fairly conservative, others experimental and fresh, but they were masterfully written and well received.
Fiction: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan’s novel shook things up this year with its innovative use of time and perspective. The story’s main protagonists are Bennie, aging executive and founder of Sow’s Ear Records and former punk rocker, and his young assistant, Sasha, who is working through a compulsion for stealing. The novel winds through their present as well as their past and provides the reader a look through their own eyes as well as through a host of supporting characters. The biggest departure for the board this year but they are in good company. A Visit From the Goon Squad was picked as one the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010 and a winner in the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award.
History: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner
The Fiery Trial traces the life of Abraham Lincoln and the movement to end slavery. It provides a sharply focused look at how slavery in America came to an end and the man who did more than any other to bring that to fruition. Mr. Foner begins with Lincoln’s youth but focuses on his political education and career in the Whig party as well as his presidency. It’s a familiar subject but The Fiery Trial offers a lot more than the old line.
Biography: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Many biographies promises readers the excitement of a new, groundbreaking discovery that will change forever how the reader sees the subject. Washington is not one of those biographies. What Chernow does deliver is a well written, well researched book on America’s first president (under the Constitution anyway). It is as comprehensive a guide on George Washington’s life as one could want in a single volume and is equally suited for the history professor’s office or the coffee table at home.
General Nonfiction: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
By the time you’ve read the subtitle on this ambitious project by physician and science writer Siddhartha Mukherjee, you already realize it is something you have not seen before. Dr. Mukherjee reaches back to the earliest recorded accounts of cancer and traces the ongoing battle humanity has waged ever since upon this affliction. He records famous cases, documents medical advancements and breakthroughs, as long as the setbacks. Mukherjee brings it as far as the story of a present-day leukemia patient. Emperor of Maladies approaches the subject with the grand perspective of a historian and the personal attention of biographer.
Poetry: The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan
Kay Ryan is one of the most notable living American poets, she has had a long, storied career, and from 2008-2010 she served as the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States of America. Her latest is a collection of poems, selected by the poet herself, spanning her career, with a pleasant sprinkling of new poems thrown in to keep it fresh. The Best of It was rated number 1 in the IndieBound 2010 Poetry List.
Visit http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/2011 for a complete list of winners and nominated finalists.
