The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American
Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of
feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality.
Finalists have been announced from 1980, ordinarily two others beside the winner.[1]
Winners and citations
In its first 35 years to 2013, the Feature Writing Pulitzer was awarded 34 times; none was given in 2004 and 2014, and it was never split.
Gene Weingarten alone won it twice, in 2008 and 2010.[1]
1981:Teresa Carpenter, Village Voice, for
Death of a Playmate, "her account of the death of actress-model
Dorothy Stratten." (The prize in this category was originally awarded to
Janet Cooke of The Washington Post, but was revoked after it was revealed that her winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict was fabricated.)
1990:Dave Curtin, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, "for a gripping account of a family's struggle to recover after its members were severely burned in an explosion that devastated their home."
1991:Sheryl James, St. Petersburg Times, "for a compelling series about a mother who abandoned her newborn child and how it affected her life and those of others."
1992:Howell Raines, The New York Times, "for '
Grady's Gift,' an account of the author's childhood friendship with his family's black housekeeper and the lasting lessons of their relationship."
1993:George Lardner Jr., The Washington Post, "for his unflinching examination of his daughter's murder by a violent man who had slipped through the criminal justice system."
1997:Lisa Pollak, The Baltimore Sun, "for her compelling portrait of a baseball umpire who endured the death of a son while knowing that another son suffers from the same deadly genetic disease."
1999:Angelo B. Henderson, The Wall Street Journal, "for his portrait of a druggist who is driven to violence by his encounters with armed robbery, illustrating the lasting effects of crime."
2001:Tom Hallman, Jr., The Oregonian (
Portland, Oregon), "for his poignant profile of a disfigured 14-year-old boy who elects to have life-threatening surgery in an effort to improve his appearance."
2005:Julia Keller of Chicago Tribune, "for her gripping, meticulously reconstructed account of a deadly 10-second tornado that ripped through Utica, Ill."
2006:Jim Sheeler of Rocky Mountain News, "for his poignant story on a
Marinemajor who helps the families of comrades killed in
Iraq cope with their loss and honor their sacrifice."
2009:Lane DeGregory of St. Petersburg Times, for '
The Girl in the Window,' "her moving, richly detailed story of a neglected little girl, found in a roach-infested room, unable to talk or feed herself, who was adopted by a new family committed to her nurturing."
2013:John Branch of The New York Times, for
'Snow Fall', an "evocative narrative about skiers killed in an avalanche and the science that explains such disasters" and the integration of multimedia elements.
2017:C. J. Chivers of The New York Times for '
The Fighter,' "showing, through an artful accumulation of fact and detail, that a Marine's postwar descent into violence reflected neither the actions of a simple criminal nor a stereotypical case of
PTSD."[3]
2018:Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, freelance reporter, GQ, for "an unforgettable portrait of murderer
Dylann Roof, using a unique and powerful mix of reportage, first-person reflection and analysis of the historical and cultural forces behind his killing of nine people inside
Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C."
2019:Hannah Dreier of
ProPublica for a series of powerful, intimate narratives that followed Salvadoran immigrants on New York's Long Island whose lives were shattered by a botched federal crackdown on the international criminal gang
MS-13.[4]
2020:Ben Taub of The New Yorker for "a devastating account of
a man who was kidnapped, tortured and deprived of his liberty for more than a decade at the
Guantanamo Bay detention facility, blending on-the-ground reporting and lyrical prose to offer a nuanced perspective on America's wider war on terror."[5] (Moved into contention by the Board.)
2021:Nadja Drost, freelance contributor, The California Sunday Magazine, for "For a brave and gripping account of global migration that documents a group's journey on foot through the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous migrant routes in the world."[6]Mitchell S. Jackson, freelance contributor for Runner's World, "for a deeply affecting account of the
killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America."
2022:Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic, "For an unflinching portrait of a family's reckoning with loss in the 20 years since
9/11, masterfully braiding the author's personal connection to the story with sensitive reporting that reveals the long reach of grief."[7]
2023:Eli Saslow of The Washington Post, "For evocative individual narratives about people struggling with the
pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality that collectively form a sharply-observed portrait of contemporary America."[8]
References
^
ab"Feature Writing". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 2013-12-26.