Pullet surprise.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today. Jimbo has a good list, with links.

I’m not as obsessed with the Pulitzers as I was in a past life, but I do want to single out two from this year that I think are particularly noteworthy.

The Pulitzer board, in their infinite wisdom, decided to give a special citation to Hank Williams

for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.

Now, I like Hank, and I can’t argue too much with this decision. But to steal a line from Lawrence, “Fat lot of good that does him now.”

The other prize I think is noteworthy is Gene Weingarten’s prize in the Feature Writing category. I have a complicated relationship with Weingarten and his writing. He’s sort of the WP answer to Dave Barry, the go-to guy for funny skewed humor (Barry and Weingarten are close friends). I used to read him pretty regularly, until he made a statement in one of his online chats that I found completely stupid and unforgivable. After that, I tried to quit him cold turkey.

The problem is, Weingarten isn’t just a funny humor guy. Sometimes, he writes stuff that tears your heart out. In 2008, he won the Pulitzer for a story in which he had the great classical violinist Josh Bell play in a subway station, and wrote about the reactions of commuters. That’s not even one of his best works. In 2005, he talked the WP into sending him and a photographer to the small Alaskan village of Savoonga, which is about as far away from everything as you can get. Weingarten figured he’d get a funny cover story out of the deal. What he got was a cover story; a sad and heartbreaking cover story about a remote community that turns out beautiful works of art, and that’s being devastated by alcohol.

The story he won for this year is just as good, and even more devastating; a piece about the grief and agony of parents who accidentally leave their kids in cars. It raises fundamental questions about what justice means in cases like this, and how these incidents might be prevented. Weingarten’s story represents journalism at its best.

Also, Sheri Fink’s story about one hospital during Katrina (which I noted back in September) shared a Pulitzer for investigative reporting with the Philadelphia Daily News. Interestingly, Fink’s story was moved out of the feature writing category into investigative reporting by the board.

Edited to add: The Reason “Hit and Run” discussion of Mark Fiore’s Pulitzer for editorial cartooning is amusing to follow.

Um, seriously, this guy got a Pulitzer and Homestar Runner didn’t?

Edited to add 2: Weingarten’s post-win chat session on the WP website. Radley Balko approves.

One Response to “Pullet surprise.”

  1. Joe D says:

    I’d read the Savoonga and Josh Bell stories already, and loved them.

    I’d like to read the kids-in-cars story too, but I just can’t bring myself to click the link. It’s one of those side effects of parenthood that nobody tells you about…