For the first time since 1977, there was no fiction winner among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded yesterday in the letters and drama category. Fiction finalists were Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace. The fiction jurors were chair Susan Larson, former book editor for the Times-Picayune; Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air; and author Michael Cunningham. A majority of votes is required from the board--consisting of 18 voting members--but they could not agree on a winner.
Jordan Pavlin, the editor of Swamplandia! for Knopf, told the New York Times that when she first heard the novel was a finalist, "I was so thrilled for Karen. Then my second response was, what a shame, because the committee had it within their power to do something so wonderful for any one of those novelists. And they, for whatever reason, chose not to."
Farrar, Straus & Giroux publisher Jonathan Galassi said he was "shellshocked" by the news, but also delighted that Johnson had been recognized as a finalist: "You can tantalize yourself with thinking, what if he had won?"
Sig Gissler, the Pulitzer administrator, commented: "Whenever they make a decision, it's not meant to be a statement about fiction in general. It's just a statement that none was able to receive a majority.... Whenever you do not give a prize, you have disappointment, so we understand that. We're sorry for the disappointment. The three books were carefully considered and the process was what it was."
This year's Pulitzers went to:
Fiction: No award
General nonfiction: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (Norton)
History: Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by the late Manning Marable (Viking)
Biography: George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis (Penguin)
Drama: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Poetry: Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf)
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Finalists for the £30,000 (US$47,687) Orange Prize for Fiction, which "celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world," were named earlier today. The winner will be honored May 30 in London. This year's shortlist:
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett