Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Pulitzers announced; here are some with rural resonance

The 2019 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism were announced Monday; some had rural resonance.

Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch won for Commentary with "bold columns that exposed the malfeasance and injustice of forcing poor rural Missourians charged with misdemeanor crimes to pay unaffordable fines or be sent to jail," according to the Pulitzer website. Click here to see the prize-winning columns.

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold, won in the General Nonfiction category of Letters, Drama and Music. Griswold, an award-winning poet and journalist, "tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist."

The staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, won one of two special citations "for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief. The citation comes with a $100,000 bequest by the Pulitzer Board to be used to further the newspaper’s journalistic mission." The other special citation went to the late Aretha Franklin. Click here for the full list of winners.

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