The scandal is all over the news. The Pulitzer Board did not award a prize for fiction this year. For the first time in 35 years.
Well, this certainly is unexpected news. You would think, with the abundance of fiction oriented in a year, and with a jury that’s already weeded the pool down to three extraordinary candidates, “no award” should not be an option.
The three novels passed over by the Board are David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! and Denis Johnson’s novella Train Dreams.
There’s been some backlash. Fiction writer Jane Smiley (1992 Fiction Pulitzer Prize winner for A Thousand Acres) can’t believe there wasn’t a worthy book. Fiction Juror Susan Larson has expressed some anger that a choice could not be made after all of the work (reading up and weeding down the entrants) she and her two fellow jurors, Maureen Corrigan and Michael Cunningham, did.
And so we are left somewhat at a loss. And who is to blame? Who makes these kinds of decisions anyway?
Well, I always like to know just who the authority in any matter is and just what they’re credentials are, so I did a little googling to learn just how the Pulitzer Prize really works and how makes the decisions on this stuff. Here’s what I found.
The short version: There are the entrants, submitted for consideration by artists, authors, papers and publishers for the price of $50. There are the Pulitzer jurors, who slog through all of the entrants and select a handful of finalists, and there are the Pulitzer board members, who deliberate over the finalists and choose the 21 winners. 20 of the winners receive $10,000 dollars each, and one winner (the Public Service award in the Journalism category) receives a gold medal.
Each year, jurors (“The jurors are distinguished in their fields and include past Pulitzer winners.” Rich Oppel) are chosen and divided into groups of 3-7 people and assigned to one of the 21 categories. The jurors will spend anywhere from a few days to a few months (depending upon the category) to select their finalists to submit to the Board. The Board, sequestered and sworn to utter secrecy, keeping all debate behind closed doors, deliberate and decide upon the most worthy ones. One of their options, should they be unable to reach a majority decision, is to decide upon “no award.”
And the question of who the board members and jurors are? Who chooses them? Well, not much to be found on that, but the Prizes are based at Columbia University and the president of the University presides over the Board. So, there’s your answer? Here’s a bit more info on service terms for board members and jurors.
So, are you mad about this year’s Board’s indecision?
Well, it has been 35 years since a “no award” decision has afflicted us. Since then, we have invented the internet. And the Huffington Post wants to award the Prize by popular vote, so go here and weigh in.
If the silly Board can’t decide, then we’ll just have to decide for them!
Your New Beau.
Tags: Internet, Pulitzer Prize