For the first time since 1977, no Pulitzer Prize will be awarded in the coveted fiction category because, according to The Daily Beast, judges “couldn’t agree” on the winner.
The field wasn’t large, with only three books making the finals: Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and David Foster Wallace’s posthumous The Pale King.
Since the the Pulitzer prizes began in 1918, the fiction award has been withheld nine other times including, as the Los Angeles Times points out, in 1941 when “the committee’s recommendation of For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway was deemed offensive by the president of Colombia, and no award was given.”
Books in other categories were awarded. George F. Kennan: An American Life, John Lewis Gaddis received the prize for biography; in history, the prize was given to Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable; the Pulitzer for general non-fiction went to Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern and Life on Mars, by Tracy K. Smith was awarded for poetry.
The complete list of winners is here.
I read the story differrently, that the 18-member panel couldn't agree. Either way, too bad.
Malcolm
Nope: three jurors, as stated. Would be interesting to know where you saw 18 though.
It's in the subhead… "The board, which consists of 18 voting members and has the final say, couldn’t reach a majority vote." 🙂
Well met! My bad. What I get for trying to get it together so quickly. Will repair.