Richard Powers’ epic nature novel The Overstory has won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The sweeping and evocative novel, which unfolds in interlocking fables tracing the relationship between humanity and the natural world, has been one of 2018’s most lauded. It was also shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and the (still pending) PEN/Faulkner Award, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal: three of the most prestigious awards recognizing English-language fiction. The prolific Powers won the 2006 National Book Award for his ninth and most acclaimed novel, The Echo Maker, which was a Pulitzer finalist.
Named finalists for this year’s Pulitzer Prize were two more literary awards season mainstays: Rebecca Makkai’s ’80s queer novel The Great Believers, and Tommy Orange’s Oakland-set debut There There. The former won the equivalent Los Angeles Times book prize just this weekend, and most prestigiously, was awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal. Both The Great Believers and There There ranked among EW’s Top 10 Books of 2018.
Elsewhere among this year’s Pulitzer winners in books, Jeffrey C. Stewart’s biography of Alain Locke, The New Negro, won the prize for Biography, following up on its National Book Award win, and David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass volume was named the prize-winner for History. On the drama side, Jackie Sibblies Drury pulled off an upset with a victory for her Off Broadway play Fairview, which the Pulitzer Committee celebrated as “a hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices.” (A notable finalist in Drama was Heidi Schreck for her breakout play What the Constitution Means to Me, currently on Broadway.)
Finally, Aretha Franklin received a posthumous special citation, “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.”
Check out the full list of winners below.
JOURNALISM
Public service: Staff of the South Florida Sun Sentinel
Breaking news reporting: Staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Investigative reporting: Matt Hamilton, Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times
Explanatory reporting: David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of the New York Times
Local reporting: Staff of the Advocate
National reporting: Staff of the Wall Street Journal
International reporting: Maggie Michael, Maad al-Zikry and Nariman El-Mofty of the Associated Press, and the staff of Reuters
Feature writing: Hannah Dreier of ProPublica
Commentary: Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Criticism: Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post
Editorial writing: Brent Staples of the New York Times
Editorial cartooning: Darrin Bell, a freelancer cartoonist
Breaking news photography: Photography staff of Reuters
Feature photography: Lorenzo Tugnoli of The Washington Post
Special citation: Staff of the Capital Gazette
BOOKS, DRAMA AND MUSIC
Fiction: The Overstory by Richard Powers
Nonfiction: Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold
Drama: Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury
History: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
Autobiography or Biography: The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart
Poetry: Be With by Forrest Gander
Drama: Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Music: p r i s m by Ellen Reid
Special citation: Aretha Franklin
Related content:
The Oscars of the book world: Everything you need to know about this literary awards season
The 10 best books of 2018
These are the finalists for the 2018 National Book Award