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VOICE ONE:
Each year, Pulitzer Prizes aregiven for the best American newspaper reporting. They are also givenfor books, drama, poetry and music. This year’s winners wereannounced earlier this month. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember, with the VOA Special English program THIS ISAMERICA.
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Columbia University in New York City has awarded Pulitzer Prizessince nineteen-seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzerestablished the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary ineighteen-forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled inSaint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter.
In eighteen-eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New YorkWorld. Soon it sold more copies than any other newspaper in thecountry.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Pulitzer died in nineteen-eleven. He left two-milliondollars to Columbia University. Part of this money was to establisha graduate school of journalism to train reporters. He wanted therest of the money to be used as prizes for the best writing in theUnited States.
This year, Columbia University gave fourteen awards to newspapersand reporters for excellence in journalism during two-thousand-two.The judges — including journalists and professors from around thecountry — also honored seven people for their work in the arts.
VOICE TWO:
Six of the largest daily newspapers in the United States won mostof the journalism awards. Two of these newspapers — the Los AngelesTimes and the Washington Post — won three Pulitzer prizes each.
Last year, many Pulitzer awards went to reports about theterrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Othershonored the American-led war that followed in Afghanistan.
Winners this year dealt with a number of different subjects.
VOICE ONE:
Alan Miller and Kevin Sack of the Los Angeles Times, inCalifornia, won the prize for national reporting. They wrote afour-part series about a military airplane that takes off and landslike a helicopter. Forty-five Marine pilots have died in crashes ofthis kind of plane, called the Harrier.
Congress launched an investigation of the safety of this planeafter the series appeared.
The two other winners at the Los Angeles Times were a featurewriter and a photographer. Sonia Nazario wrote about the travels ofa boy from Honduras. The child was searching for his mother in theUnited States. Don Bartletti photographed young people from CentralAmerica as they traveled north. He followed them through manydangers as they tried to enter the United States illegally.
VOICE TWO:
A husband and wife who report together from Mexico City won thePulitzer Prize for international reporting. Mary Jordan and KevinSullivan work for the Washington Post. They risked their lives toget information for a series of reports about conditions in theMexican criminal justice system.
Colbert King of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize forcommentary. Mister King says he tries to speak for the young, thepoor and minority groups who feel they lack power in the city.
Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer forcriticism. He writes about films. He is known for his strongopinions. Mister Hunter is the first movie critic to win the prizein criticism since nineteen-seventy-five.
VOICE ONE:
The Boston Globe in Massachusetts won the public-service awardfor its reports about sexual abuse by local Roman Catholicclergymen. The stories in the Globe showed that church leaders haddone nothing to stop crimes against children and other churchmembers. In the end, the top leader for the area, Cardinal BernardLaw, resigned.
Another newspaper in Massachusetts, this one published in thesmall city of Lawrence, also won a Pulitzer. The Eagle-Tribune wonfor its skill in reporting on the drowning of four boys in a river.The prize for breaking news recognizes work done as an eventhappens.
VOICE TWO:
Cornelia Grumman of the Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer Prizefor editorial writing. The judges honored what they described as her”powerful” opinion writing against death sentences in Illinois.Earlier this month, the Illinois legislature approved measuresdesigned to reform — but not end — the death-penalty system inthat state.
Another Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism was Diana Sugg [suhg]of the Baltimore Sun in Maryland. She received the award forreporting about a special area of public interest. Mizz Sugg is amedical writer. The judges honored her reporting about the humanside of modern health care as well as its technology. One of hermost memorable stories told about family members who stayed withdying loved ones in hospital emergency rooms.
VOICE ONE:
The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatoryreporting. The Journal was honored for its efforts to explain therecent failures of major American companies such as the energytrader Enron.
Clifford Levy [LEE-vee] of the New York Times earned the Pulitzerfor his investigative reporting. He wrote a series of stories aboutconditions for thousands of the mentally sick. They live in adulthomes supervised by the state of New York. Some of these people haddied, and Mister Levy wanted to find out why. He discovered thatpoorly prepared workers acted as caretakers. He also discoveredfinancial wrongdoing in the program.
VOICE TWO:
Out West, dramatic pictures of forest fires earned a Pulitzer forthe Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. Wildfires struck thestate last spring and summer. And, in the Northwest, David Horsey[HOR-see] of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Washington state washonored for his editorial cartoons. He received his second PulitzerPrize in four years.
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VOICE ONE:
Among the prizes awarded in the arts, one went to a writer whohas currently been reporting on the war in Iraq for the WashingtonPost. Rich Atkinson won the prize for a history book that he wroteabout World War Two. It is called “An Army at Dawn: The War in NorthAfrica, 1942 (through) 1943.” It tells about Allied victories overthe Germans in North Africa. Mister Atkinson writes that thesevictories helped the United States become a major military power.
VOICE TWO:
Another author, Samantha Power, won a Pulitzer Prize for her bookcalled “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Herwork criticizes the American response to events that have takenplace since the Holocaust in World War Two. Her experience includesreporting in nineteen-ninety-three on the war in Bosnia.
Robert Caro [CA- (like in cat) roh] won a Pulitzer Prize for histhird book about former President Lyndon Johnson. The book “Masterof the Senate” tells about Johnson while he served as a senator andSenate majority leader. Mister Caro also won a Pulitzer Prize innineteen-seventy-five.
VOICE ONE:
The Pulitzer for poetry went to Paul Muldoon for his ninthcollection. Mister Muldoon was born in Northern Ireland, near thevillage of Moy. His prize-winning book is called “Moy Sand andGravel.” He teaches creative writing at Princeton University inPrinceton, New Jersey.
Jeffrey Eugenides [eu-JEH-ni-dees] won the fiction award for hisnovel “Middlesex,” about a Greek family over a period of many years.One of the characters, a girl, discovers at the age of fourteen thatshe may be a boy. This is the third novel by Mister Eugenides.
Nilo Cruz won the Pulitzer for drama for his play “Anna in theTropics.” It takes place in a little town in the state of Florida innineteen-twenty-nine. Many of the townspeople work in a cigarfactory. The workers are threatened with the loss of theirtraditions. Mister Cruz was born in Cuba. He teaches at YaleUniversity in New Haven, Connecticut.
VOICE TWO:
Among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded this year, one was directlyrelated to the September eleventh attacks on New York andWashington.
A musical piece that honors the three-thousand people killed inthe World Trade Center earned a Pulitzer for composer John Adams.The piece is called “On the Transmigration of Souls.” It mixes areading of victims’ names with orchestral music and the voices ofchildren and adults. The piece, however, has not been releasedcommercially.
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VOICE ONE:
This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watsonand produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA.