Pulitzer << PUL iht suhr or PYOO liht suhr >> Prizes are awarded annually in the United States for distinguished achievement in journalism, literature, drama, and music. Columbia University awards the prizes to news organizations, their staffs, and individuals. Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher who founded the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, established the prizes.
Pulitzer’s will provided $2 million for Columbia University to establish a graduate school of journalism. Pulitzer specified that after the school had operated for at least three years, prizes should be awarded for the advancement of education, journalism, literature, music, public morals, and public service. The Columbia University School of Journalism was founded in 1912, and the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917.
The prize categories and their definitions have changed over the years, as journalism and technology have evolved. There are currently 15 prize categories in journalism, 8 categories in literature, and a category for special citations. The winner of the prize for public service in journalism receives a gold medal. The winners of the other prizes receive $15,000 and a certificate.
Prizes in journalism
are awarded for material appearing in or on a United States newspaper, magazine, or news website that publishes regularly during the calendar year. The prize categories include one for a distinguished example of meritorious public service through the use of journalistic resources, including stories, editorials, visual materials, databases, and multimedia presentations. There are also prizes for various categories of reporting, including breaking-news, explanatory, international, investigative, local, and national reporting. Prize categories for other kinds of writing include commentary, criticism, and editorial and feature writing. Additional journalism prizes recognize achievements in audio reporting, breaking-news and feature photography, and illustrated reporting and commentary.
Prizes in literature, drama, and music
are awarded for fiction, general nonfiction, history, biography, memoir or autobiography, drama, poetry, and music. The category of general nonfiction is for nonfiction books that are not eligible for consideration in any other category. The prizes for books, plays, and music are reserved for works by Americans and works on United States history. In addition to the history category, some other categories also reflect a preference for American topics.
Special citations
are sometimes awarded to honor a single achievement or an entire career. Both individuals and organizations have received such citations.
Award procedures.
Columbia University awards the Pulitzer Prizes each year in the spring on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Anyone may submit work for consideration on the Pulitzer Prizes website. Preference is given to works characterized by the highest quality of writing and original reporting, and by journalistic excellence.
The Pulitzer Prize Board oversees the process of judging entries for Pulitzer Prizes. It appoints jurors to different juries to judge the entries in the various prize categories. Journalism juries include editors, educators, publishers, and writers. Book, drama, and music juries include academics; critics; writers, including playwrights; composers; and presenters of musical works.
Each jury nominates three finalists for evaluation by the board. The nominees are listed alphabetically, and not ranked. The board may accept, reject, or substitute other entries for, these nominees. The board then votes to choose a winner from among the three finalists. Sometimes, there is more than one winner in a single category. If none of the competitors in a category gains a majority vote of the board, the prize may be withheld.
Entrants in most of the literature, drama, and music categories must be U.S. citizens. Entrants in the journalism categories may be of any nationality. However, their submitted work must have appeared in American media. The Pulitzer Prizes website at https://www.pulitzer.org includes detailed information about the prize categories and how the winners are chosen.
