AP News, April 16th, 2007
Winners and finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer juries make up to three recommendations in each category without listing them in order of preference. The Pulitzer Board, which awards the prizes, is not limited to those recommendations in choosing a winner.
JOURNALISM:
PUBLIC SERVICE _ The Wall Street Journal for its probe into backdated stock options for business executives that led to investigations, the removal of top officials and widespread changes in corporate America.
Also nominated: The Birmingham (Ala.) News for coverage of cronyism and corruption in the state's two-year college system; The Washington Post for its coverage of waste and abuse in the nation's farm subsidy system.
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING _ The staff of The (Portland) Oregonian for print and online coverage of a family missing in the Oregon mountains.
Also nominated: The staff of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., for reports on the crash of a Comair commuter jet that killed 49 people; the staff of The Denver Post for coverage of back-to-back blizzards.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING _ Brett Blackledge of The Birmingham (Ala.) News for his coverage of cronyism and corruption in the state's two-year college system, resulting in the dismissal of the chancellor and other corrective action. This entry was moved from the public service category.
Also nominated: Ken Armstrong, Justin Mayo and Steve Miletich of The Seattle Times for their series that exposed how the improper sealing of hundreds of lawsuits hid information vital to public safety; Michael J. Berens, Julia Sommerfeld and Carol Ostrom of The Seattle Times for their probe of sexual misconduct by health-care professionals that included the creation of an online database of offenders; Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford (Conn.) Courant for their coverage of suicide among American soldiers in Iraq.
EXPLANATORY REPORTING _ Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis of the Los Angeles Times for their print and online reports on the world's distressed oceans.
Also nominated: Joanne Kimberlin and Bill Sizemore of The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., for their examination of the United States' increasing reliance on private military personnel; the staff of The New York Times for their reports on the growing problem of diabetes among the poor.
LOCAL REPORTING _ Debbie Cenziper of The Miami Herald for reports on waste, favoritism and lack of oversight at the Miami housing agency.
Also nominated: the staff of The Boston Globe for print and online exposure of unscrupulous debt collectors; Fred Schulte and June Arney of The (Baltimore) Sun for their print and online reports about abuses under an archaic state law that threatened to turn hundreds out of their homes.
NATIONAL REPORTING _ Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe for his reports about President Bush using "signing statements" to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws.
Also nominated: Maurice Possley and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune for their investigation of a 1989 execution in Texas that suggests an innocent man was killed by lethal injection; Les Zaitz, Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian for their coverage of mismanagement and other abuses in federally subsidized programs for disabled workers.
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING _ The staff of The Wall Street Journal for reports on the adverse impact of China's booming capitalism on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution.
Also nominated: the staff of the Los Angeles Times for coverage of Iraq; Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post for his coverage of conflict in Lebanon that included frontline dispatches, personal history and analysis.
FEATURE WRITING _ Andrea Elliott of The New York Times for her portrait of an immigrant imam striving to live and serve his faithful in America.
Also nominated: Christopher Goffard of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times for his reports of a young public defender and his daily challenges; Inara Verzemnieks of The Oregonian for her portfolio of features on an array of everyday topics.
COMMENTARY _ Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for her columns that the Pulitzer board described as "evincing a strong sense of morality and persuasive knowledge of the community."
Also nominated: Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post for her commentary on a range of subjects; Joe Nocera of The New York Times for his columns on business, often spotlighting misdeeds and flaws in corporate culture.
CRITICISM _ Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly for his wide-ranging restaurant reviews.
Also nominated: Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times for his pieces on art; Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times for his music criticism.
EDITORIAL WRITING _ The editorial board of the New York Daily News for its editorials on behalf of ground zero workers whose health problems were neglected by the city and the nation.
Also nominated: Jane Healy of The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel for her editorials on development projects that imperiled Florida's wetlands and wildlife; Sebastian Mallaby of The Washington Post for his editorials on the rising inequality in America.
EDITORIAL CARTOONING _ Walt Handelsman of Newsday for his stark, sophisticated cartoons and his use of zany animation.
Also nominated: Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle for his cartoons on an array of issues, and for his use of animation; Mike Thompson of the Detroit Free Press for his cartoons that rely on rich detail and deft caricature to make their point and for using animation to widen his impact.
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY _ Oded Balilty of The Associated Press for his photograph of a lone Jewish woman defying Israeli security forces as they remove illegal settlers in the West Bank.
Also nominated: the staff of The Associated Press for images of brutal warfare between Israel and Hezbollah; Michael Bryant of The Philadelphia Inquirer for his photographs of the devastating injury to the racehorse Barbaro.
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY _ Renee C. Byer of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee for her portrayal of a single mother and her young son as he dies of cancer.
Also nominated: Mary F. Calvert of The Washington Times for her depiction of sub-Sahara African women afflicted with fistula after childbirth; Gary Coronado of The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post for his images of Central Americans who, trying to enter America illegally, leap onto northbound Mexican freight trains.
ARTS:
FICTION _ "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf).
Also nominated: "After This" by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); "The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
DRAMA _ "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire.
Nominated: "Orpheus X" by Rinde Eckert, "Bulrusher" by Eisa Davis; "Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue" by Quiara Alegria Hudes.
HISTORY _ "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation" by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Alfred A. Knopf).
Also nominated: "Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005" by James T. Campbell (The Penguin Press); "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War" by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking).
BIOGRAPHY _ "The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher" by Debby Applegate (Doubleday).
Also nominated: "John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty" by Arthur H. Cash (Yale University Press); "Andrew Carnegie" by David Nasaw (The Penguin Press).
POETRY _ "Native Guard" by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin).
Also nominated: "The Republic of Poetry" by Martin Espada (W.W. Norton); "Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004" by David Wojahn (University of Pittsburgh Press).
GENERAL NON-FICTION _ ""The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright (Alfred A. Knopf).
Also nominated: "Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness" by Pete Earley (G.P. Putnam's Sons); "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq" by Thomas E. Ricks (The Penguin Press).
MUSIC _ "Sound Grammar" by Ornette Coleman, recording released September 12, 2006.
Also nominated: "Grendel" by Elliot Goldenthal, premiered June 8, 2006, by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, libretto by Julie Taymor and J.D. McClatchy; "Astral Canticle" by Augusta Read Thomas, premiered June 1, 2006, by the Chicago Symphony (G. Schirmer, Inc.).
SPECIAL CITATIONS:
_ Ray Bradbury for what Pulitzer officials described as "his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy."
_ John Coltrane, honored posthumously for "his masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
_ The 1980 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography to Jahangir Razmi, an Iranian photographer, for his picture of a firing squad in Iran. (The picture was published anonymously around the world in 1979 but the identity of the photographer was unknown until revealed in December 2006.)
(Corrects to The Birmingham News, not Press)
(Corrects to The Birmingham News, not Press. )
