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Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, Drama and Music

By THE NEW YORK TIMES


George Duncan
Marilynne Robinson


READERS' OPINIONS

. Forum: Join a Discussion on Book News and Reviews


The 89th annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Following are the winners in Letters, Drama and Music.

FICTION: 'Gilead,' by Marilynne Robinson
Nearly a quarter of a century passed between Ms. Robinson's first novel, "Housekeeping," published in 1981, and this second book, the elegiac tale of a 76-year-old Congregationalist pastor who, facing imminent death, writes a letter to his 7-year-old son.
"Gilead" is set in 1956 in Iowa, a place that Ms. Robinson, 61, knows well as a teacher at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Review (November 28, 2004)
Excerpt
Profile (New York Times Magazine, October 24, 2005)

GENERAL NONFICTION: 'Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001,' by Steve Coll
In chronicling how Al Qaeda's brand of Islamic fundamentalism came to thrive in the chaos left by the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan, Mr. Coll, 46, an associate editor and former managing editor at The Washington Post, pieced together the period of ignorance and inaction that led to the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
Review (April 11, 2004)
First Chapter
Reading Group Discussion of 'Ghost Wars'

BIOGRAPHY: 'De Kooning: An American Master,' by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Mr. Stevens, 53, is the art critic for New York magazine and a former art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek. He is married to Ms. Swan, 54, who has been a writer at Time and a music critic and senior arts editor at Newsweek. Ten years in the making, this book about de Kooning is widely considered the first major biography of the painter.
Review (December 12, 2004)
Slide Show: Images From 'De Kooning: An American Master'

HISTORY: 'Washington's Crossing,' by David Hackett Fischer
Mr. Fischer, 69, is Warren professor of history at Brandeis University. In "Washington's Crossing," he shows how a despairing American army refused to surrender during the darker moments of the Revolution. Reached at his home in Wayland, Mass., Mr. Fischer said he believed that his book presented a complex look at the general. "My Washington was a figure who took me very much by surprise," he said. "What he did was bring together the values of the American Revolution with the conducting of the war."
Review (February 15, 2004)

POETRY: 'Delights & Shadows,' by Ted Kooser
Mr. Kooser, of Garland, Neb., is the poet laureate of the United States. Like Wallace Stevens, Mr. Kooser, 65, worked in life insurance for much of his career. He was vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance, where he wrote advertising copy and oversaw legal affairs; he rose daily at 4:30 a.m. to compose poetry, which he asked his secretary and colleagues to critique. He retired in 1998.
Clarity is the hallmark of Mr. Kooser's style, with deceptively modest metaphors grounded in the Nebraska landscape. The Bloomsbury Review described his work as "like clean, clear water."
An Interview (September 12, 2004)

DRAMA: 'Doubt,' by John Patrick Shanley
At first glance, the genesis of "Doubt" would seem to be obvious: The play tells the story of a strong-minded nun investigating suspicions of pedophilia in a Roman Catholic school, and was produced after real-life sex scandals in the church. But Mr. Shanley, 54, said the play was actually inspired by what he called a visceral reaction to current American political discourse.
"People who have great certainty can be a force of good, but can also be incredibly destructive," he said yesterday.
Review (April 1, 2005)
Show Details
Profile (New York Times Magazine, November 7, 2004)

MUSIC: 'Second Concerto for Orchestra,' by Steven Stucky
Mr. Stucky's concerto is a colorfully orchestrated work written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which Mr. Stucky has been associated with - first as composer in residence, and now as consulting composer for new music - since 1988. The piece includes allusions to works by Ravel, Stravinsky and Sibelius, composers Mr. Stucky finds particularly influential. But it is also built on motifs that Mr. Stucky based on a code he devised, in which the letters of the alphabet were assigned to musical pitches.
• Web Site: Information About Steven Stucky from his publisher, the Theodore Presser Company


Related
Pulitzer Prizes Announced (April 5, 2005)
Last Year's Winners
The Pulitzer Prizes: Official Web Site







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