In just a few minutes, the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes will be announced just upstairs from CJR world headquarters. Megan Garber will be live-tweeting the press conference–here’s her Twitter feed–and we’ll update this post as quickly as we can.
The Categories:
Journalism
Public Service
*Andrea Berzon, Las Vegas Sun, high death rate of construction workers on the strip.
Finalists:
–New York Times, coverage of the financial crisis in 2008
-St. Petersburg Times, for its fact-checking site PolitiFact. (Read a CJR Q&A with project leader Bill Adair here)
Breaking News Reporting
*New York Times staff, Eliot Spitzer scandal coverage.
Finalists:
–Houston Chronicle staff, tech-savvy Hurricane Ike coverage
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch, city-hall shooting reporting
-Associated Press staff, chronicling the aftermath of the earthquake in Sichuan, China
Investigative Reporting
* David Barstow, New York Times, Pentagon connected military analysts. (CJR has written several times on Barstow’s story and its fallout.)
Finalists:
-Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times, exposing corruption in California’s largest union
-Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Chemical Fallout,” a series uncovering an absence of government oversight in packaging products. (Read a CJR Laurel for the series here)
Explanatory Reporting
* Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times, series on effectiveness of “attempts to combat growing menace of wildfires”.
Finalists:
-Adam Liptak, New York Times, describing differences among American and international judicial systems. (CJR praised the series, but criticized a piece in it, here)
-Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis, Washington Post, documenting AIG’s collapse. (CJR briefly praised the series here.)
Local Reporting
*Detroit Free Press staff, Kwame Kilpatrick coverage. (Read a CJR laurel to the Free Press here)
*Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin, East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Az.), “how a popular sheriff’s focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crime“.
Finalist:
-Brendan McCarthy, Michael DeMocker and Ryan Smith, Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), for a gripping series about a murder in New Orleans. (Read a CJR Q&A with McCarthy here.)
National Reporting
*St. Petersburg Times, “PoltiFact”. (Read a CJR Q&A with project leader Bill Adair here)
Finalists:
-Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest, Washington Post, “Careless Detention,” an overview of America’s network of immigration detention centers
-John Shiffman, John Sullivan and Tom Avril, Philadelphia Inquirer, “An Eroding Mission at EPA,” a look at how the Bush administration weakened the agency
–Wall Street Journal staff, coverage of the financial collapse. (CJR criticized the paper’s crisis coverage here)
International Reporting
*New York Times, coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Finalists:
-Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press, investigations of child exploitation in Africa
–Washington Post staff, an examination of how females in the developing world are “oppressed from birth to death”
Feature Writing
*Lane DeGregory, St. Petersburg Times, reporting on a neglected child.
Finalists:
-John Barry, St. Petersburg Times, a story about a rescued baby dolphin
-Amy Ellis Nutt of the Newark Star-Ledger, a deeply reported story of a chiropractor who became a “wildly creative” artist after suffering a stroke
-Diane Suchetka, Cleveland Plain Dealer, a story about a mechanic whose arms were reattached after being severed in an accident
Commentary
* Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, columns on 2008 presidential election.
Finalists:
-Regina Brett, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, columns “giving readers deeper insight into life’s challenges”
-Paul Krugman, New York Times, prophetic columns on the economic crisis
Criticism
* Holland Carter, New York Times, arts criticism. (Read a CJR Q&A with Carter here)
Finalists:
-Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer, architectural critiques on topics like urban planning
-Sebastian Smee, The Boston Globe, reviews on the New England art scene
Editorial Writing
*Mark Mahoney, The Post-Star (Glens Falls, NY), “editorials on the perils of local government secrecy“.
Finalists:
-Charles Lane, Washington Post, editorials on the economic collapse
-John McCormick, Marie Dillon and Bruce Dold, Chicago Tribune, critical columns on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s corruption
Editorial Cartooning
*Steve Breen, The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Finalists:
-Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press.
-Matt Wuerker, Politico.
Breaking News Photography
*Patrick Farrell, Miami Herald, photos of Hurricane Ike’s aftermath in Haiti.
Finalists:
-Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times, photos capturing violence in Kenya.
Feature Photography
*Damon Winter, New York Times, photos of Obama’s campaign.
Finalists:
-Carol Guzy, Washington Post, intimate coverage of the perils and sorrow of childbirth in Sierra Leone
-Sonya Hebert, Dallas Morning News, “At the Edge of Life,” series about palliative care in Texas
Letters, Drama, and Music
Fiction
*Elizabeth Strout, “Olive Kitteridge”
Finalists:
-Louise Erdrich, “Plague of Doves”
-Christine Schutt, “All Souls”
Drama
*Lynn Nottage, “Ruined”
Finalists:
-Gina Gionfriddo, “Becky Shaw”
-Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiarar Alegria Hudes, “In The Heights”
History
*Annette Gordon-Reed, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family”
Finalists:
-Drew Gilpin Faust, “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War”
-G. Calvin MacKenzie and Robert Weisbrot, “The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s”
Biography or Autobiography
*Jon Meacham, “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House”
Finalists:
-H.W. Brands, “Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
-Steve Coll, “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.”
General Nonfiction
*Douglas A. Blackmon, “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II”
Finalists:
-Arthur Herman, “Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged our Age”
-William I Hitchcock, “The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe”
Music
*Steve Reich, “Double Sextet”
Finalists
-Don Byron, “7 Etudes for Solo Piano”
-Harold Meltzer, “Brion”
Special Citations:
None this year.
UPDATE: This list, which we’ve been updating with links since this afternoon’s announcement, briefly listed some incorrect finalists in the Commentary category. I regret the error.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.