Photos of Pulitzer Prize winners. Best Pulitzer Prize Winning Books Pulitzer Prize Winners in Literature

On April 20, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded in New York for achievements in literature, journalism, music and theatre. There were no Russians among the laureates this year. Photo works dedicated to the conflict in Ukraine were not awarded the prize, although they were presented in two categories.

The Pulitzer Prize was founded on August 17, 1903 by an American newspaper magnate and publisher. Its size is 10 thousand dollars. IN different years Prizes have been given to writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Margaret Mitchell, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner and others.

AiF.ru tells what is the Pulitzer Prize and why is it awarded?

What is a Pulitzer Prize?

Joseph Pulitzer. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / United States Libraries of Congress

The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in American journalism and literature, music and theater. The award was established on August 17, 1903, when the will was drawn up Joseph Pulitzer(1847-1911), American publisher, journalist, founder of the "yellow press" genre, about creating an award in his own name. The Pulitzer Prize began to be awarded in May 1917 for outstanding achievements in literature and journalism. Its amount is 10,000 dollars.

The Pulitzer Prize was funded by an investment fund created after the publisher's death. In 1970, another foundation was set up, which managed to attract additional donations to pay for the awards of this prestigious award.

At the presentation of the Pulitzer Prize, the nomination "For Service to the Society" is especially noted. The nominee, in addition to monetary reward, is also awarded a gold medal. The award is given "for an exceptional example of worthy service to society."

The number of awards has increased over the years. In 1922 there was a prize for the best caricature. In 1942, an award for the best photograph was added to it. Since 1943, the list of nominees has been replenished with composers of music. In 1999, the nomination "Journalistic Investigation" was created. In 2006, they began to hold a competition among online content. Since 2009, the Pulitzer Prize has been awarded to journalists both for materials published in print media and for publications on the Internet.

Currently, the prize is awarded in 25 nominations, 14 of them are related to journalism. The Literary Prize is awarded in 6 nominations: “For a fiction book written by an American writer, preferably about America”; "for a book on the history of the United States"; "For Biography or Autobiography of an American Author"; "For a poem"; "For non-fiction"; For Best Drama. In 1920, 1941, 1946, 1954, 1964, 1971 and 1974 it was not awarded to anyone, as the jury did not reveal a single worthy literary work.

Who makes the decision to award the prize?

The prizes are awarded by Columbia University in New York on the proposal of the Pulitzer Committee. It consists of 19 experts - five publishers, six editors, six academics, including the president of the university and the dean of the journalism department, one columnist and the administrator of the award.

Who was the first Pulitzer Prize winner?

The first recipient of the award in 1917 was an American journalist Herbert Bayard. He was awarded a prestigious prize for a series of articles in the New York World entitled "From Within the German Empire".

Who was awarded the award in 2014?

In April 2014, in New York City, the Guardian and Washington Post journalists received prestigious awards in the Public Service nomination for their exposés of illegal data collection by American intelligence agencies.

The Pulitzer Prize for International Journalism was also awarded to two Reuters correspondents for a series of reports on the persecution of the Muslim minority, the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

The Breaking News award went to The Boston Globe for their coverage of the Boston bombings.

Literary award in the nomination "Fiction" received Donna Tartt for the novel "The Goldfinch".

In the nomination dramaturgy - Annie Baker for the play "Kinoshka" ("The Flick").

Musical "Pulitzer" received an American composer John Luther Adams for the orchestral work "Become Ocean".

Who else was among the winners of the Pulitzer Prize?

Over the years, Pulitzer Prizes for Literature have been Ernest Hemingway("The Old Man and the Sea"), Harper Lee("To Kill a Mockingbird"), William Faulkne r ("Parable"), Tennessee Williams("Tram" Desire ""), Arthur Miller("Death of a Salesman") Margaret Mitchell("Gone With the Wind"), John Updike(for the novels "The Rabbit Got Rich" and "The Rabbit Calmed Down").

The Pulitzer Prize for Music received Wynton Marsalis (1997), George Gershwin(1998), Duke Ellington(1999),Kevin Pats (2012).

The award for the best photo in different years received Don Bartletty for a series of photographs of people trying to leave Central America for the United States, Harry Trask for a series of photographs of the sinking Italian liner Andrea Doria, taken 9 minutes before it went under water, Alexander Zemlyanichenko for the photograph of Boris Yeltsin dancing at an election concert, William Gallagher for photographing US presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson's holey shoe, Stan Grossfeld for a series of photographs of the famine in Ethiopia, etc.

Over the years of the award, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post collected the most awards in the journalistic nomination. The Los Angeles Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer also received awards in 2011 and 2012.

Among the foreign laureates of the award is a Russian Alexander Zemlyanichenko(in 1992 - for a report on the Moscow coup of 1991 and in 1997 - for photographs of Yeltsin dancing at a rock concert), as well as an Afghan photojournalist for Agence France-Presse Massoud Hossaini, who took a picture of a terrified girl after a terrorist attack in Kabul.

The content of the article

PULITZER PRIZES, are awarded in the United States for excellence in journalism, literary creativity ( fiction and drama) and music. Awarded annually on the first Monday of May by the Trustees of Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board. The awards are given under the auspices of the Journalism Department of Columbia University. Under the terms of the agreement between the university and J. Pulitzer, concluded in 1903, and subsequently included in the text of Pulitzer's will dated April 16, 1904 and described in detail in the charter of awards, the monetary part of the awards is the annual income from the Pulitzer Fund of 550 thousand dollars. This fund, in turn formed from J. Pulitzer's $2 million donation to the university.

Since the awards were first presented in 1917, the university's trustees and board members of the Pulitzer Prizes have faithfully followed the founder's legacy. Although the trustees of the university have the right to award prizes, it is the board that has a decisive vote in deciding whether to award, not to award, or new criteria for awarding prizes. At the beginning, the council consisted of 13 members. By the mid-1990s, there were already 17 of them. Created in 1912, the council was named the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Journalism. In 1950, the board was renamed the Pulitzer Prize Advisory Board, and in 1979 the Pulitzer Prize Board.

According to the charter of the awards, nominations in the field of journalism are announced in writing no later than February 1 of the calendar year. Literature nominations must be submitted no later than July 1 for books published between January 1 and June 30, and no later than November 1 for books published between July 1 and December 31 (books prepared for publication between November and December must be presented for consideration in the form of imposition). Journalism nominations may be submitted on behalf of any person at any time during the current award period. All nomination proposals are accompanied by copies of editorials, reports, cartoons or photographs. 4 copies of each book nominated for the literature prize are sent to the secretary of the council no later than the date indicated.

Plays produced during the 12 months between 2 March and 1 March may be nominated for the Drama Prize. Nominations in the field of music are sent no later than March 1 for works released between March 15 of the previous year and March 1 current year. Dramatic and musical works may be nominated provided that the council members are familiar with their public performance.

journalism awards.

In the mid-1990s, there were 14 journalism awards each year: a gold medal for public service and 13 awards of $3,000 each for a work published during the award period in an American daily, Sunday, or weekly newspaper. These awards are given for 1) outstanding public service by an American newspaper; 2) the best report on a specific event; 3) the best local investigative report (one article or a series of articles) created by an individual journalist or creative team; 4) the best critical material; 5) the best comment; 6) the best report on a national topic; 7) the best reporting on international issues, including the materials of correspondents at the UN; 8) the best editorial material, where the quality criterion is the clarity of style, moral pathos, persuasiveness of argumentation and the ability to influence public opinion in the right direction, according to the author; 9) the best caricature, where the main quality criteria are a clear expression of the idea in the drawing, good drawing technique and vivid expressiveness, as well as the author's appeal to a socially significant problem; 10) the best photo essay of local importance; 11) the best art photography; 12) best essay provided High Quality style and originality; 13) the best analytical material covering complex and important issues; and 14) best material scandalously sensational.

Literature, music and other categories.

In the field of literature, six Pulitzer Prizes of $3,000 each are awarded. They are awarded for 1) the best work of fiction by an American writer, published in book form, and preferably dealing with the problems of American life; 2) an American play, preferably original in plot and dedicated to American life; 3) the best work on US history; 4) best biography or an autobiography written by an American author; 5) the best poetic work created by an American author; 6) the best book of journalism created by an American author and not falling under other categories. In Music, a $3,000 Pulitzer Prize (originally a music scholarship) is awarded annually for "an outstanding musical composition by an American composer in any major form, including chamber, choral, orchestral works, opera, song, dance or otherwise." a musical theater work that premiered in the United States this year.” There are also three foreign travel scholarships of $5,000 each, awarded to journalism graduates on the recommendation of the faculty council; one $5,000 scholarship is awarded to an outstanding graduate who has expressed a desire to specialize in theater, music, literature, film or television criticism. From time to time, special awards are given to journalists and writers, a newspaper or a publishing house, in recognition of their outstanding work and deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, but not received it in any of the existing categories.

Selection of laureates.

Award decisions are made by special juries appointed by the university for each category. Each jury draws up a list of three candidates for alphabetical order and passes it on to the Pulitzer Prize Board. The council is looking into everything necessary materials and the works of the nominees, after which it sends its recommendations to the trustees, who approve the choice made by the board and immediately announce the names of the winners without holding an official ceremony. The Council has the right to award the prize to any applicant, regardless of the recommendations of the nominating jury. Jury members, board members or trustees are not entitled to participate in the discussion and voting if the award presented can benefit them personally or the organizations they represent. Council membership for each person is limited to three three-year terms. Vacancies are filled by voting, in which the current members of the council take part.

The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious US awards in literature, journalism, music and theater. In October 1911, the Hungarian-Jewish newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer (b. 1847) died. According to the will, a fund was founded in his name on the 2 million dollars left for this purpose.

The will was drawn up on August 17, 1903. This day is considered the date of the establishment of the Pulitzer Prize. Since 1917, the prize has been presented annually on the first Monday of May by the Trustees of Columbia University in New York. The amount of the award is 10 thousand dollars. The Pulitzer Committee established the first personal prize in honor of a Russian journalist and presented it to Anna Politkovskaya for a detailed chronicle Chechen war. Twice winner of this award is the chief photographer of the Moscow Bureau of AP Alexander Zemlyanichenko. Official website of the award: http://www.pulitzer.org/.

Winners of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Drama and Poetry

On April 15, the 2019 Pulitzer Prize ceremony took place in the United States. At a ceremony at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Pulitzer Prize organizing committee chairman Dana Kennedy announced the winners.

Awarded in Literary nominations the following works and authors: Richard Powers for the book " Upper tier”, Jackie Sibblies Drury for Directing the View, David W. Blythe for Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Liberty, Jeffrey S. Stewart for the biographical novel The New Black: The Life of Alain Locke, and Forrest Gander for the collection of poems Stay Close ".

Nomination "Fiction":
novel "The Overstory" by Richard Powers

Richard Powers is a prolific author, unfortunately still (until this year's Pulitzer) not at all known to the Russian-speaking reader. The main characters of his novel "The Upper Tier" were trees. People are present in the ecological plot, but communication also takes place in nature. This is a novel about a pressing issue: deforestation and environmental disaster. But just as for a tree a whole century is just a few millimeters in coverage, so for Powers an extra hundred pages of a novel is not a hindrance. And if it is sometimes boring to read about his human heroes, then the trees that come to the fore in this novel will definitely never bore you. Powers called the award given to him "a stunning recognition". According to him, the reaction of readers to the book proved that people were "hungry for works about taking nature seriously." Through his work, Powers tried to "reunite man with the world from which he has come off."

From the biography of Richard Powers

The famous American writer was born on June 18, 1957. His novel Echo won the 2006 National Pulp Book Award. Richard Powers has received many awards and nominations for his literary work. The subject of his works is extensive, it affects research in the field of science and technology, nature, and there are also fantastic stories. Powers has taught at the University of Illinois and at Stanford University.

Nomination "Drama":
play "Fairview" by Jackie Sibblies Drury

Drury's dazzling play, at first seems like a family comedy, but then expands the viewer's expectations with a dizzying play with content and form. It forces theatergoers to think differently about issues of race and what the white majority see or don't see. Drury, 37, said she tried to show white people what it's like to walk around in a body of color and see people judge you. The play, which debuted last year at the Soho Theater, will return to the stage in June.

Nomination "History":
production of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Yale University professor David Blythe was awarded "a gripping piece of history" about deep-seated racial prejudice and confronting it. The author traced the transformation of his character Douglas from a fugitive slave to one of the most profound thinkers on issues of equality, race and American identity. Blythe, 70, began writing this book 12 years ago when he stumbled upon a private collection of Douglas manuscripts held by a retired black surgeon living in Savannah. “What does it mean to be an American? Blythe asks himself and the world. “Douglas said it best.”

“More than two centuries after Douglas was born, as a slave on a Maryland farm, his experiences inspire writers from India, Nigeria and Ireland who have included him as an important figure in their writings,” notes historian David Blythe.

Biography of David Blight

David William Blythe was born in 1949. Professor of American History at Yale University; director of the Gilder-Lerman Center; researcher on slavery, resistance and abolition.
After studying at Harvard and North Central College, he taught at Amherst College from 1990 to 2003. During this time, he received major prizes for writing on the history of slavery, the Bancroft Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize.

Nomination "Biographical work":
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart

Jeffrey Stewart, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, received the award for "providing a panoramic overview of his father's personal experiences and creative triumph, the so-called Harlem Renaissance in poetry and the movement it inspired." Locke, whose students included Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, believed that artistic expression was essential to progress in racial relations. “We rarely honor people who create space and opportunity for others., said Stewart, 69. - That's what I like about Locke.".

From the biography of Jeffrey S. Stewart

Jeffrey S. Stewart is a professor at the University of California who has devoted his career to the study of issues of race and culture related to art, history, literature, music and philosophy. His previous books are 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History and Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen.

Nomination "Poetry":
poetry collection "Be With" by Forrest Gander

The poems from Forrest Gander's latest collection deal with grief, among other things. His wife, celebrated poet Caroline Wright, died unexpectedly in 2016 at the age of 67. “I didn’t write for almost two years,” Gander, 63, said of the period after her death. “We always read each other’s work with interest.” When he resumed work, "the verses just poured out on their own," without requiring much editing, as they used to. He is glad that his readers, like himself, felt that "poems about the gloomy can change a person."

“Gander's poetry has a tremendous, symphonic quality, but he uses poetry to find and dislocate at the same time, pushing the boundaries of meaning or pitching his camp where language drifts away from meaning. There are dazzling passages, decaying syntax, verses that, in their ghostly state, also force us to be attentive to our own fragile lives.”, says Tess Taylor in a book review.

Biography of Forrest Gander

Forrest Gander was born in 1956 in the Mojave Desert and grew up mostly in Virginia. With degrees in geology and English literature, Gander is the author of numerous books of poetry, translations, fiction and essays. He is Professor of Literary Art and Comparative Literature. A. K. Siver at Brown University. Gander, an American artist from Rockefeller, has received grants from the NEA, Guggenheim, Howard, Witter Bynner, and Whiting foundations. His 2011 Core Samples from the World collection was an NBCC and Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist, and his Be Be 2018 - Be With collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and was longlisted for the National Book Award.

Prepared from the Internet

Irina Kondrashova, Leading Librarian of the Service Department

Today, the Pulitzer Prize is one of the most famous and, as a result, prestigious world awards in journalism, photojournalism, music, literature and theatrical art. It was approved on August 17, 1903 by Joseph Pulitzer, a well-known American publisher and journalist whose name is still associated with the emergence of the yellow press genre.

Joseph Pulitzer was born in April 1847 in Hungary. Having emigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen, in 1878 he bought up two well-known American newspapers, the St. Louis Dispatch and the St. Louis Post, and formed a new periodical, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Convinced of the power of the press over human minds, Pulitzer uses his publication to publish the most controversial and controversial articles that criticize the actions of the authorities. Soon his publication becomes one of the most profitable and influential in the western United States. In 1883, he buys the New York World and turns it into a popular newspaper full of political news, complete with comics and illustrations. With the profits received from the publication of newspapers, Joseph Pulitzer creates a journalism department and establishes the famous award.

Traditionally, the Pulitzer Prize is awarded on the first Monday of May by members of Columbia University in the United States for outstanding achievements in the field of literature and journalism. The amount of the award for most nominations is ten thousand dollars. Separately, the category “For Service to Society” is noted, the winner of which receives not only a monetary reward, but also gold medal"For meritorious service to society."

In total, there are currently about 25 different nominations, among which 14 are directly related to journalism. Every year, special attention is paid to literary awards in six categories: "For a fiction book written about America", "For a biography or autobiography of an American author", "For a book on US history", "For the best drama", "For a poem" and "For non-fiction." According to historical reports, the Pulitzer was not awarded ten times, as the jury of the competition could not identify a single literary work worthy of the award.

History of appearance

As mentioned earlier, the Pulitzer Prize originated in 1903, when Joseph Pulitzer's will was drawn up. It was first awarded in 1917. According to an agreement between Columbia University (under the auspices of the journalism department of which the award is presented annually) and Pulitzer, the monetary part of the award is the annual income that the Pulitzer Foundation brings, formed from a two million donation to the university. Thus, the annual money fund The premium is about 550 thousand dollars. In addition to donations from the merchant himself, in 1970 another fund was created that raises additional funds to pay this prestigious award.

The number of nominations and awards over time also only increases. So, in 1922, for the first time, a prize for the best caricature appeared, and in 1942, for the first time, an award for the best photograph was awarded. A little later, nominations for the best musical compositions and theatrical performances appeared. In addition, since May 2006, not only paper but also electronic works have been considered among the applicants for the Pulitzer Prize.

Competition jury

The Pulitzer Prize is awarded by the Board of Trustees based on the performance of the Advisory Board. It is this body that has a decisive vote in determining the winners. Members of the Advisory Board develop the criteria for awarding the prize.

Initially, the council consisted of only thirteen members, but by mid-1990 there were already seventeen members. To date, the Pulitzer Committee has 19 experts, including the Prize Administrator, five prominent publishers, one columnist, six editors and six academics.

The activities of the competition committee of the award are constantly criticized by the public. Every year, the jury receives many accusations of bias and subjectivity when awarding an honorary award. However, according to the will of the creator of the Pulitzer Prize, it is impossible to change the order of this procedure.

Award process

According to the award's charter, in order to receive a nomination in the field of journalism, it is necessary to submit material in paper form no later than February 1 of the current year. For literary works, the last date is the first of July of the previous year for books published from January to June; and the first of November for books released between July and December.

Interestingly, journalism nominations can be submitted on behalf of any person throughout the award period. The main thing is that the proposal should be accompanied by copies of documents confirming the candidate's right to receive the award. With regard to literature, the Council must provide four copies of the nominated book for review. A similar order is used in evaluating many literary awards in Russia. But musical and dramatic works can nominate for the award no later than the first of March of the current year, and only on condition that all members of the jury are familiar with their public performance.

Decisions on the awarding of the prize are made by specially appointed by the university for each individual category members of the jury. Each jury must draw up a list of three nominees and submit it to the Pulitzer Prize Board. The Council, in turn, examines all materials submitted to it, including written sources, recommendations and works of nominees, and then sends its own references for approval to the Board of Trustees of Columbia University. The Trustees receive the choice of the Board and immediately announce the names of the winners, without waiting for the official awards ceremony. Note that neither the trustees nor the jury members can influence the choice of the Council. Its members decide on the awarding of any nominee, regardless of the recommendations of the jury. At the same time, none of the trustees, members of the jury or the Council has the right to participate in the discussion or voting if the award presented by them affects their personal interests. Membership in the Council is limited to three terms of 3 years each, and vacancies are filled by secret ballot, in which all current members of the Council are required to take part.

Most Famous Pulitzer Prize Winners

Since the inception of this award, many writers and journalists have become its laureates, among whom were both well-known and not recognized by the public authors. The very first winner of the award was the American journalist Herbert Bayard, who was awarded such a prestigious prize for a series of articles under the general title "From Within the German Empire".

Over the years, literary prizes have been awarded to such works as Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. At the same time, for the most part, Pulitzer Prize-winning books have never been bestsellers, just as award-winning theater plays have never been staged.

As for the foreign winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the first such nominee was the Russian journalist Artem Borovik with his report "Room 19" about the activities of the Institute of the Brain. Also in April 2011, the prize was awarded to Anna Politkovskaya for her detailed chronicle of the war in the Chechen Republic. Another Russian journalist, Alexander Zemlyanichenko, won the award twice for his reporting on the Moscow coup in 1991 and photographs of Boris Yeltsin.

Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Main features of the award

As noted earlier, the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, unlike winners in other categories, are not always well-known and generally recognized writers. And although they are often accused of incompetence and fraud. This is largely due to the fact that its members strictly abide by the rules drawn up by Joseph Pulitzer himself, according to which this prize, like some literary prizes in Russia, is awarded only to those writers who have dedicated their books to the life and history of the United States.

Often the works that win the award are of low literary value, but accurately and reliably describe life in the outback or tell, for example, about the personal problems of American teenagers. That is why these literary awards are divided not by genre, but by temporal principle. Each year, a jury selects several entries that best describe the present and past of the United States.

Recognition of merit of journalists

The Pulitzer Prize for Journalism is the most important and prestigious award for American periodicals. It includes many nominations, which evaluate both the speed and reliability in covering events, as well as the personal contribution of journalists to their work. Interestingly, in this case, not only individuals, but also entire publications become laureates of the award.

This is perhaps the most predictable Pulitzer Prize. The winners in this case are always known in advance, and it is not difficult to predict the voting results. At the same time, this nomination is also considered the calmest in terms of high-profile scandals and accusations. Most critics agree that all the winners of this award received their awards quite deservedly and legally.

Music and theater arts

In the field of music, the Pulitzer Prize is awarded in the amount of three thousand dollars. It is awarded for an outstanding work by an American composer in any major form. These are any orchestral, choral and chamber works, operas and other compositions.

In addition to the music award, there are special scholarships in the amount of five thousand dollars, which are awarded to outstanding journalism graduates who have expressed a desire to specialize in music, theater, film, television or literary criticism.

Pulitzer theater awards have a prize fund of three thousand dollars. They are awarded both to venerable well-known directors and to very young directors working on plays in diverse genres. As with literature, many high-jury awards have never been shown to the general public and have never been performed on Broadway.

Filming Award

The Pulitzer Prize is deservedly considered one of the most coveted for a photographer. For many, it means much more than a simple monetary reward. It is a recognition of their merits, the value of daily work. At the same time, disputes around this nomination still do not subside. Public opinion is extremely controversial, and many people are not sure whether this Pulitzer Prize is even needed. The photographs to which it is awarded often cross the boundaries of conventional art. Most of the works are devoted either to little-known or already tired problems. Professionals expose personal dramas and broken destinies of people. Therefore, most photographs leave a heavy residue after viewing.

Often, not only works, but also photographers themselves are criticized. They are accused of filming horrific events instead of helping people in need. So, for example, Kevin Kartar, who received an award for his series of photographs “Hunger in Sudan”, which depicts a girl weakened from hunger and a huge condor waiting for her to die, committed suicide just two months after the award.

Award winners in 2014

On April 14, 2014, the results were summed up and the names of the winners of the next Pulitzer Prize were announced. Thus, her novel The Goldfinch, which tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy wandering around Manhattan after the death of his mother, became the winner of the Literature Prize. This work also became the first in the list of hundred best books of the year according to the Amazon online store at the end of 2013.

Annie Baker received the Theater Award for her play Flick, presented in the Drama category. In the category "Music" the award was awarded to John Luther Adams for the song "Become an Ocean".

In journalism, the Public Service category went to The Guardian and The Washington Post, which conducted investigations into the activities of the US National Security Agency based on documents provided by Edward Snowden. In the nomination "Sensational material" won the journalists of another American publication ("Boston Globe"), who covered the explosions and search operations during the Best International Reporting was recognized for the work of Reuters journalists, telling about the persecution of Muslim communities in Myanmar and the slave trade.

Pulitzer Prize- is one of the most prestigious US awards which is awarded for achievements in literature, journalism, music and theatre.

The award bears the name famous newspaper magnate of Hungarian origin - Joseph Pulitzer. After his death (Joseph died in 1911), Pulitzer bequeathed to organize fund named after him the initial capital of which was the 2 million dollars "bequeathed" by the magnate. Meanwhile, the founding day of the award is not its actual foundation, but the date of the Pulitzer will, which became the beginning of the prestigious award, – August 17, 1903.

The award has become annual only since 1917: to this day in every first Monday in May The Trustees of Columbia University in New York present the J. Pulitzer Award.

The award is known not only for its big name, but also for no less loud debates that often arise in the process of discussing the nominees: the commission was repeatedly accused of incorrectly awarding or not awarding the award at all. However, despite all the subjectivity of the process, the Pulitzer Prize commission never made populist decisions, dictated by the opinion of the majority: many authors were "discovered" by the award, which did not allow the name and prestige of the author to influence the decision of the board; virtually none of the nominee books before the award was not a bestseller, and the works were not processed for playing on stage or in the cinema. Of course, in the journalism nominations, the largest publications have always been among the first - such as New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others, but not so famous magazines and newspapers have always been noted along with them.

The award keeps pace with the times, while not losing touch with its traditions, which are the key to the quality of the assessment of modern literature. Yes, with 2006 authors have the right to submit their work from the worldwide web.

It is with special pride that the names of Russians, who have become iconic figures for the American Award. The first nominal prize was established in honor of Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya who deserved such an honor by leading chronicles of the Chechen war. Anna has repeatedly received awards for her journalistic activities - Russian Golden Pen Award(2000), Amnesty International Award(2001, for human rights journalism), etc. The journalist received many awards for her fearless coverage of the events of one of the bloodiest wars - International Women's Press Foundation Award for Courage in Journalism(2002), Lettre Ulysses Award, H. Kersten Medal and Prize(2003) and others. Unfortunately, many of these awards found their owner only after her death - UNESCO Prize for Contribution to Press Freedom(2007), Hans and Sophie Scholl Anti-Fascist Prize (2007), the highest order of the CRI "Honor of the Nation" (2010).

Named after Anna Politkovskaya premium established by the organization "To help every woman in the fire of war."

The only Russian citizen to win the Pulitzer Prize is photographer Alexander Zemlyanichenko, Alexander was nominated for photo reports from Russia in the 90s(1991 and 1996). A. Zemlyanichenko became a laureate of the award twice, in 1992 and 1997.

The Pulitzer Prize includes a number of nominations: for service to society, for outstanding investigation, for revealing a national theme, for news photography, for a history book, for a poem, for non-fiction, etc.

Many well-known works were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize: "Gone with the Wind" M. Mitchell(1937), "The Old Man and the Sea" E. Hemingway (1953), "To Kill a Mockingbird" by H. Lee(1961), "Short and amazing life Oscar Wao" J. Diaz(2008) and others.