Pulitzer Prizes Announced
Category: MSM/Journalism/etc...
Posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 at 08:25 AM [GMT-6]

Update: Joel Achenbach works with a bunch of Pulitzer Prize winners, and he shares his thoughts about writers in general and Steve Coll, this year's winner of the award for general non-fiction, in particular.

The 2005 Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday, ensuring that a score of individuals and newspapers will forevermore be referred to as "Pulitzer-prize winning" [fill in the blank...author, poet, journalist, newspaper, cartoonist, etc.]. It's better than a knighthood, really, if for no other reason than women can receive the adjectival honor, as well as groups of people (newspaper staffs, for example). And it pretty much ensures that your résumé will write itself in the future.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern received the award for Criticism (which, given the flavor of our society, is surely the most competitive of all the competitions!). Joe is the movie critic for the Journal, and while I've faithfully read his reviews for years, I find that I have rarely agreed with his take. In fact, it's a standing joke around our house that we'll bump up a movie to "must see" status if Joe has written a particularly scathing review of it. But, that's the hallmark of a successful professional critic: ensuring that people continue to read your columns even if they rarely agree with them. Mr. Morgenstern wins a tidy $10K to go along with the eternal title.

The other winner of note is Nick Anderson, for Editorial Cartooning, thankfully sparing us of the humiliation of having to see Gary Trudeau's name in lights again. Nick is affiliated with the Louisville, KY Courier-Journal newspaper, and he also wins $10,000. Even if you can't place his name, you'll be familiar with his style. He's received numerous professional awards for his cartoons, which tend to avoid the petty nastiness we see in the work of too many of his colleagues. I was interested to note that the names of his two sons, Travis and Colton, are hidden in each of his cartoons. If you go to the previously linked site, you can review a few of his recent 'toons and spend some quality time looking for those names...which isn't an easy task given the low resolution of the images. Mr. Anderson is also a bicyclist, so he's got that going for him.

Question of the day: Will there eventually be a Pulitzer Prize for blogging?

Technorati tags: Pulitzer Prize | Joe Morgenstern | Nick Anderson