With all the craziness in the world right now it’s nice to know that at least the awards are going ahead, even if we can’t have filled ceremonies to celebrate. In recent weeks we’ve had several literary awards shortlists, and yesterday the Pulitzer Prizes, 2020 were handed out.
As usual prizes are for journalism and the arts, and as usual here at For Reading Addicts we’ll be concentrating on the prizes for literature.
Fiction
The Nickel Boys – Colson Woodhead
A spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption.
History
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, by W. Caleb McDaniel
A masterfully researched meditation on reparations based on the remarkable story of a 19th century woman who survived kidnapping and re-enslavement to sue her captor.
Biography
Sontag: Her Life and Work – Benjamin Moser
An authoritatively constructed work told with pathos and grace, that captures the writer’s genius and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities and volatile enthusiasms.
Poetry
The Tradition – Jericho Brown
A collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence.
General Nonfiction
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, by Greg Grandin
A sweeping and beautifully written book that probes the American myth of boundless expansion and provides a compelling context for thinking about the current political moment. (Moved by the Board from the History category.)
General Nonficton
The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care, – Anne Boyer
An elegant and unforgettable narrative about the brutality of illness and the capitalism of cancer care in America.
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