2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners -- Have You Read Any of Them?

A few years ago, I made a pact with myself to read more classic novels and nonfiction works. I then decided that, in keeping with this, I would read winners of the Pulitzer Prize. Most of the books I had already read that won the Pulitzer (only a few) had been excellent reads and, besides, the Pulitzer Prize was given in various literature categories, thereby helping me in my endeavor to at least read some modern classics.

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced Monday, April 20, at Columbia University. Among the winners were the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times for newspaper writing. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post won for best Commentary. Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times won for best Feature Writing. Best Local Reporting went to the Detroit Free Press Staff and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Arizona). Best public service reporting went to the Las Vegas Sun.

In music, Steve Reich won for "Double Sextet."

That was all well and good (and I truly agree with the St. Petersburg Times decisions, because I am always reading material from their newspaper), but I was more interested in the book-length works that get honored. And just my luck, my reading list got a bit longer. I had not read a single book on the list.

Elizabeth Stout won for Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Olive Kitteredge. Winner of the Pultizer Prize in the History category was The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed.

I did at least recognized the winner of the Biography category: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham. In fact, I saw the author, Meacham, interviewed by Jon Stewart.

The winner for Poetry: The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin.

Douglas A. Blackmon's Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

After glancing through the list of nominees for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in each of the written works not associated with journalism, I found that I had not read any of them. In fact, John Meacham's American Lion was the only one of which I had actually even heard.

So there it was -- new additions to my list of books to read. The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners. Maybe I'll get them read before the Pulitzer Prize Board nominates another list of books for next year I've never heard of.

Then again, maybe I'll just go read some Dickens or Twain.

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Source:

Pulitzer.org