The 2011 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded and winners were honored and presented with their awards on May 23, 2011.
Established by Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prizes promote excellence in journalism and art. The first prizes were awarded in 1917 and have been awarded every year since.
More about the Prizes, winners of the 2011 awards and previous year’s winners all the way back to 1917, a biographical sketch of Joseph Pulitzer, and much more can be found on The Pulitzer Prizes website.
Prize categories in Journalism include:
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
By: Jon Meacham
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2009/Biography or Autobiography
Also Available in: Audio Disc and Large Print
Book Description: Chronicles the life and career of Andrew Jackson, a self-made man who went on to become a military hero and seventh president of the United States, analyzing Jackson’s seminal role during a turbulent era in history. |
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Best of It: New and Selected Poems
By: Kay Ryan
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2011/Poetry
Book Description: Presents a selection of more than two hundred poems from his previous works along with a collection of new poems. |
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The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
By: David E. Hoffman
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2010/General Nonfiction
Also Available in: Audio Disc
Book Description: A history of the end of the arms race describes the Soviet Union’s development of an automatic retaliatory attack system, the United State’s efforts to create space-based missile defenses, and the struggle to prevent nuclear weapons from being acquired by terrorists. |
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The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2011/General Nonfiction
Also Available in: Audio Disc
Book Description: A stunning combination of medical history, cutting-edge science, and narrative e journalism that transforms the listener’s understanding of cancer and much of the world around them. Siddhartha Mukherjee provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments and offers a bold new perspective on the way doctors, scientists, philosophers, and lay people have observed and understood the human body for millennia. |
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The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
By: Eric Foner
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2011/History
Book Description: In a landmark work of deep scholarship and insight, Foner gives us a life of Lincoln as it intertwined with slavery, the defining issue of the time and the tragic hallmark of American history. The author demonstrates how Lincoln navigated a dynamic political landscape deftly, moving in measured steps, often on a path forged by abolitionists and radicals in his party, and that Lincoln’s greatness lay in his capacity for moral and political growth. |
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The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
By: T. J. Stiles
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2010/Biography or Autobiography
Book Description: A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the gold rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation. |
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The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
By: Annette Gordon-Reed
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2009/History
Also Available in: Audio Disc
Book Description: Traces the history of the Hemings family from early eighteenth-century Virginia to their dispersal after Thomas Jefferson’s death in 1826, and describes their family ties to the third president against a backdrop of Revolutionary America and the French Revolution. |
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Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
By: Liaquat Ahamed
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2010/History
Book Description: Argues that the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent depression occurred as a result of poor decisions on the part of four central bankers who jointly attempted to reconstruct international finance by reinstating the gold standard. |
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Pulitzer: A Life
By: Denis Brian
Book Description: A biography of the man who created the Pulitzer Prize awards. |
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Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power
By: James McGrath Morris
Book Description: “Comprehensive biography of media mogul Joseph Pulitzer” –Provided by publisher. |
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Tinkers
By: Paul Harding
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2010/Fiction
Book Description: On his deathbed, surrounded by his family, George Washington Crosby’s thoughts drift back to his childhood and the father who abandoned him when he was twelve. |
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Versed
By: Rae Armantrout
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2010/Poetry
Book Description: A double collection from one of the most brilliant poets of her generation. |
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A Visit From the Goon Squad
By: Jennifer Egan
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2011/Fiction
Also Available in: Audio Disc
Book Description: Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs confront their pasts in this powerful story about how rebellion ages, influence corrupts, habits turn to addictions, lifelong friendships fluctuate and turn, and how art and music have the power to redeem. |
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Washington: A Life
By: Ron Chernow
Pulitzer Prize Year/Category: 2011/Biography or Autobiography
Also Available in: Audio Disc and Large Print
Book Description: The author provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. |
