Pulitzer for Feature Writing 2015

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plus what's up with another winner

List of Pulitzer Prize Winners for Feature Writing, That List On Loan from Wikipedia

• 1979: Jon D. Franklin, Baltimore Evening Sun, for 'Mrs. Kelly's Monster', "an account of brain surgery."
• 1980: Madeleine Blais, Miami Herald, "for 'Zepp's Last Stand.'"
• 1981: Teresa Carpenter, Village Voice, "for 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 (The prize in this category was originally awarded to Janet Cooke of The Washington Post, but was revoked after it was revealed that her winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict was fabricated.)
• 1982: Saul Pett, Associated Press, "for an article profiling the federal bureaucracy."
• 1983: Nan C. Robertson, The New York Times, "for her memorable and medically detailed account of her struggle with toxic shock syndrome."
• 1984: Peter Mark Rinearson, The Seattle Times, "for 'Making It Fly,' his 29,000-word account of the development, manufacture, and marketing of the new Boeing 757" jetliner.
• 1985: Alice Steinbach, The Baltimore Sun, "for her account of a blind boy's world, 'A Boy of Unusual Vision.'"
• 1986: John Camp, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, "for his five-part series examining the life of an American farm family faced with the worst U.S. agricultural crisis since the Depression."
• 1987: Steve Twomey, The Philadelphia Inquirer, "for his illuminating profile of life aboard an aircraft carrier."
• 1988: Jacqui Banaszynski, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, "for her moving series about the life and death of an AIDSvictim in a rural farm community."
• 1989: David Zucchino, The Philadelphia Inquirer, "for his richly compelling series, 'Being Black in South Africa.'"
• 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."
• 1994: Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times, "for her profile of a fourth-grader from Chicago's South Side and for two stories reporting on the Midwestern flood of 1993."
• 1995: Ron Suskind, The Wall Street Journal, "for his stories about inner-city honor students in Washington, D.C., and their determination to survive and prosper." These articles would later become his first book "A Hope in the Unseen"
• 1996: Rick Bragg, The New York Times, "for his elegantly written stories about contemporary America."
• 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."
• 1998: Thomas French, St. Petersburg Times, "for his detailed and compassionate narrative portrait of a mother and two daughters slain on a Florida vacation, and the three-year investigation into their murders."
• 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."
• 2000: J.R. Moehringer, Los Angeles Times, "for his portrait of Gee's Bend, an isolated river community in Alabama where many descendants of slaves live, and how a proposed ferry to the mainland might change it."
• 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."
• 2002: Barry Siegel, Los Angeles Times, "for his humane and haunting portrait of a man tried for negligence in the death of his son, and the judge who heard the case."
• 2003: Sonia Nazario, Los Angeles Times, "for 'Enrique's Journey,' her touching, exhaustively reported story of a Honduran boy's perilous search for his mother who had migrated to the United States."
• 2004: not awarded
• 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 Marine major who helps the families of comrades killed in Iraq cope with their loss and honor their sacrifice."
• 2007: Andrea Elliott of The New York Times, for 'Muslims in America Series,' "her intimate, richly textured portrait of an immigrant imam striving to find his way and serve his faithful in America."
• 2008: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post, for 'Pearls Before Breakfast,' "his chronicling of a world-class violinist who, as an experiment, played beautiful music in a subway station filled with unheeding commuters."
• 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."
• 2010: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post, for 'Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?,' "his haunting story about parents, from varying walks of life, who accidentally kill their children by forgetting them in cars."
• 2011: Amy Ellis Nutt of the Newark Star-Ledger, for 'The Wreck of the Lady Mary,' "her deeply probing story of the mysterious sinking of a commercial fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean that drowned six men."
• 2012: Eli Sanders of The Stranger (Seattle) for 'The Bravest Woman in Seattle,' "his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner."
• 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.

Jon Franklin and a Description of Recent Feature Writing Nominees

I copied this from the Pulitzer Prize site. It looks as if the winner and one of the two finalists would satisfy Jon Franklin's notion of finding the positive angle - though my god the subject matter sounds pretty grim. The third story just seems downright depressing, of the sort Franklin says nobody likes. Interestingly enough, it's the one I went to the trouble to read when it first appeared. Perhaps, I was curious about how one "falls from grace" - a term my religious background floats to my lips - and I was also ready to fill up with anger at yet another pro sport that allows its participants - indeed, encourages them - to do themselves damage so that the sport profits.

 Sometimes, it feels good to feel bad, right?


  Awarded to Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle (Wash.) weekly, for his haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman’s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative. 

 Finalists Also nominated as finalists in this category were: John Branch of The New York Times for his deeply reported story of Derek Boogaard, a professional hockey player valued for his brawling, whose tragic story shed light on a popular sport’s disturbing embrace of potentially brain-damaging violence; and Corinne Reilly of The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, for her inspiring stories that bring the reader side-by-side with the medical professionals seeking to save the lives of gravely injured American soldiers at a combat hospital in Afghanistan.

Personally, I Think a Great Food Writer Should Fit the Part

Jonathan Gold, the only food writer to win a Pulitzer.



I've shared the Porno Burrito with you. Here are his prize-winning reviews.