Winners Collect Pulitzers in New York Ceremony

By: Charles Geraci The winners of the 88th annual Pulitzer Prizes, announced April 5, received their awards Monday in a ceremony at Columbia University. Lee Bollinger, president of the university, presented the prizes.

It was an emotional day for some of the winners. "I didn't really appreciate the significance of it until about a half-hour ago," said Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times, who won for Criticism for his car column -- one of five awards for his paper.

Neil was one of several winners who spoke with E&P afterward.

"I actually was tearing up after I received the award," said David Leeson of The Dallas Morning News, a co-winner of the Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography, who chronicled the Iraq war for the paper. "I suddenly had a flashback of all the terrible things of war -- the poverty, the injustice, the death. I felt a sense of sadness and relief. I felt the price we pay for a certificate."

Relief was a common sentiment expressed by this year's Pulitzer winners. "This was wonderful because you don't have to do anything except walk up and get the prize," said Kevin Helliker of The Wall Street Journal, a co-winner for Explanatory Reporting, who helped awaken the medical community's interest in brain aneurysms. "After the initial announcement was made, I found myself constantly having to give impromptu speeches."

His colleague, Thomas M. Burton of the Journal, who won for the same category, detailed his considerable apprehension surrounding the Pulitzers. "I was nervous before the awards, after the awards, and this whole week," said Burton. "Actually getting the award was the most fun of all." He jokingly added, "I encourage everyone in journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize."

Several of the winners noted their view that the Pulitzers are not overrated. "You could say they are overrated, but it wouldn't make any difference," said Matt Davies of The Journal News, Westchester, N.Y., who won for Editorial Cartooning. "The Pulitzers have a global currency -- a history that cannot be argued with. But they do put tremendous pressure on newspapers to win prizes to justify they're worthy of their readers."

Neil of the L.A. Times said he has spent much of the past decade writing for magazines. "This is a pivot in my career," he said. "Winning a Pulitzer gives me the credibility and the freedom to make a transition to other kinds of work.

In the wake of the Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley scandals, Andy Barnes, the new chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board who made Monday's opening remarks, said that both The New York Times and USA Today "were victims of writers who made it up." He added that this year's Pulitzer winners demonstrate that "honest, consequential journalism is still practiced in many places across America. The best work published this year was among the best work I have ever seen."