Novelist Joshua Cohen, artist Winfred Rembert, and poet Diane Seuss were among the winners of the 2022 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, announced on May 9.
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert as told to Erin I. Kelly (Bloomsbury) won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Finalists in the category were The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura (Norton) and Pessoa by Richard Zenith (Liveright)
Cohen's The Netanyahus (NYRB) won the prize for fiction. Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman (Grove) and Palmares by Gayl Jones (Beacon) were the finalists in the category.
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott (Random House) won for general nonfiction. Finalists in the category were Home, Land, Security by Carla Power (One World) and The Family Roe by Joshua Prager (Norton).
Two books were awarded in the history category this year, with Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace (Liveright) and Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (Scribner) each taking home the prize. Also nominated was Until Justice Be Done by Kate Masur (Norton).
frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss (Graywolf) won the prize for poetry. Finalists in the category were Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang (Graywolf) and Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten by Will Alexander (New Directions).
NYRB had over 2,000 copies of The Netanyahus in stock when the prize was announced, but by mid-day the day after, there were orders in for "nearly 10,000 copies, a huge portion of which are coming from independent bookstores," the press said. NYRB is placing a reprint order for 10,000 more copies, which are expected by early June.
"Deep into the Trump years, while some of my fellow white men were proclaiming that ‘Jews will not replace [them],’ I found myself writing an, yes, an historical campus novel centered on the unfamous members of an infamous Israeli family, which takes as exemplary the Americanization of a people that comprises about 2% of the US population," Cohen said. "It was an obvious choice for the Pulitzer, is what I’m saying. And I’m also saying: thanks…to the Pulitzer Committee, as well as to (keeping it short) New York Review Books and my agent Edward Orloff."
Graywolf Press, which had both a winner and a finalist in the poetry category, is receiving its third printing of frank: sonnets at the warehouse this week, it said, bringing the total in print to 9,000. The press will also order another 10,000-12,000 copies following Seuss's win.
This story has been updated with further information.