Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch and Dan Fagin's Toms River were among the winners of the 2014 Pulitzer Prizes, announced at Columbia University on April 14. The winner of each letters category took home a $10,000 cash prize.
Tartt's novel, described by the Pulitzer jury as a "beautifully written coming-of-age novel" with "exquisitely drawn" characters, beat out fellow fiction finalists Phillipp Meyer (The Son) and Bob Shacochis (The Woman Who Lost Her Soul).
Fagin took home the general nonfiction award for his exposé of toxic waste dumping that was billed by the judges as "deftly" combining investigative reporting and historical research. Gary J. Bass (The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide) and Fred Kaplan (The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War) were named as finalists in the category.
Other winners included The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor (history); Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall (biography or autobiography); and 3 Sections by Vijay Seshadri (poetry). Graywolf said they would be reprinting another 10,000 copies of 3 Sections with Pulitzer Prize lettering.
For a full list of the prize winners and finalists in all categories, click here.
