2009 Pulitzer winners were announced this week. What have you read, what's on your nightstand, and what do you wish had won instead?
Fiction
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
A collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating.
Drama
Ruined by Lynn Nottage
A searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.
History
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)
A painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.
Biography
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)
An unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life.
Poetry
The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)
a collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.
General Nonfiction
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)
A precise and eloquent work that examines a deliberate system of racial suppression and that rescues a multitude of atrocities from virtual obscurity.
Fiction
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
A collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating.
Drama
Ruined by Lynn Nottage
A searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.
History
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)
A painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.
Biography
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)
An unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life.
Poetry
The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)
a collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.
General Nonfiction
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)
A precise and eloquent work that examines a deliberate system of racial suppression and that rescues a multitude of atrocities from virtual obscurity.
Comments
In other opinions, I love to see that Merwin won. He's one of my favorite poets, though I haven't read any of his older work. I will have to buy this collection.
I had the same thought about "American Lion" -- I keep hearing how wonderful it is, but the task of reading it is a little daunting, as busy as I am right now. (The better the writing, the slower I read. I'm not a good skimmer.)
Check out Merwin's anti-war poetry from the '60s. I just realized, it'll probably ring completely fresh and true for the next generation.