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Pulitzer Prizes Announced: Washington Post, New York Times Win Big

The Washington Post won four Pulitzer Prizes this year, for Anthony Shadid’s Iraq coverage, for Kathleen Parker’s opinion writing, for Sarah Kaufman’s dance criticism, and for Gene Weingarten’s “haunting story about parents, from varying walks of life, who accidentally kill their children by forgetting them in cars.” The Times won two, for explanatory reporting on food safety and national reporting on the hazards of cell phone and computer use, while the Times Magazine shared an award with ProPublica for Sheri Fink’s story about “the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhausted doctors when they were cut off by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.” (Gawker points out that Shadid has since left the Post to work for the Times.) In the creative arts, Paul Harding won the fiction Pulitzer for his book Tinkers, Next to Normal won for drama, and Rae Armantrout won for poetry.

JOURNALISM
Public Service — Bristol (Virginia) Herald Courier
Breaking News Reporting — the Seattle Times staff
Investigative Reporting — Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News and Sheri Fink of ProPublica, in collaboration with The New York Times Magazine
Explanatory Reporting — Michael Moss and members of the New York Times staff
Local Reporting — Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
National Reporting — Matt Richtel and members of the New York Times staff
International Reporting — Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post
Feature Writing — Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post
Commentary — Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post
Criticism — Sarah Kaufman of the Washington Post
Editorial Writing — Tod Robberson, Colleen McCain Nelson, and William McKenzie of the Dallas Morning News
Editorial Cartooning — Mark Fiore, self-syndicated, appearing on SFGate.com
Breaking News Photography — Mary Chind of the Des Moines Register
Feature Photography — Craig F. Walker of the Denver Post

LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction — Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)
Drama — Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
History — Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (the Penguin Press)
Biography — The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
Poetry — Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press)
General Nonfiction — The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (Doubleday)

MUSIC
Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon, premiered February 6, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana (Lawdon Press).

SPECIAL CITATION
Hank Williams [PDF]

Pulitzer Prizes Announced: Washington Post, New York Times Win Big