Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool: Pulitzer Prize Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

I love the Pulitzer Prize announcement because the award is about storytelling from so many perspectives and formats. From journalism to cartooning to fiction to nonfiction to drama to podcasting [new this year] and music, this award captures the breadth of storytelling in our society.

The journalism awards showcase the stories that are the most current and pressing from across the country. Many of these will become full length books at some point too, so being aware of the winners will prepare you for the books that are coming on the horizon. Interest will be piqued in the winners immediately, and patrons may be asking to access the reporting.

Take the 1619 Project for example. As a New York Times home delivery subscriber, I received all of the reporting as it was released and our entire family read and discussed it. Nikole Hannah-Jones won specifically for the essay that prefaced the entire project. From the award citation page for MS Hannah-Jones:

For a sweeping, deeply reported and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America’s story, prompting public conversation about the nation’s founding and evolution.

In my opinion, the accumulation of reporting for the 1619 Project is perfectly situated to become a book, as are many of the other investigative reports that won.

But even without books on these topics yet, you can promote the winners with links to your databases that would allow access to these stories. What a great way to assist your nonfiction readers AND promote your newspaper databases. Now is the time to highlight that your patrons can access these award winning stories RIGHT NOW. And, with many people having Corona Virus news reporting fatigue, these will be a welcome respite while they promote your newspaper databases.

Speaking of the winners and accessing their work, click here for every winner, in each category as well as the super easy backlist winner links in the left gutter. Remember, past winners in journalism HAVE been made into books and or you can also access their reporting in the same databases.

And I haven't even moved on to the more traditional RA sphere awards in Books, Drama, and Music. You can click here to see the winners and the finalists in each of those categories. 

Here is the link to the excellent NYT Books guide to the 15 books that won or were a named a finalist.

The covers of three of the winners

I want to talk about Colson Whitehead in particular as this is his second Pulitzer for fiction.

If you have ever heard me or seen me talk, I always use Whitehead as an example. He has written a book for every type of reader-- from historical fiction to a beach read to magical realism to horror and even a nonfiction book about the profession poker circuit. And his books, while more literary than the average book, are extremely accessible to a wide audience. I agree that he is "America's Storyteller" as Time Magazine crowned him last summer. His books are an excellent representation of the best of American literature and I am not surprised one bit that he has won again. Most importantly, they are great reads, filled with thought provoking issues, realistic characters, steady pacing, and action you are eager to follow. These are not epic tomes even thought they are extremely thought provoking. Yes, they are all issue oriented, but in a way that allows readers from all backgrounds to think about who were are and the world we live in.

There are scenes from The Underground Railroad and Zone One that have stayed with me throughout the years. I can remember exactly what happens in those scenes and I can literally see them unfolding, still. [Side note: go read Zone One. It is the best zombie novel I have ever read. And you all know I read a lot of them.]

The Nickel Boys is also a great choice for the Pulitzer in particular because he used investigative journalism into the real school as the starting point for the novelization of this awful place.

I would have continued to use Whitehead as my example of THE quintessential American author without this new accolade, but at least now it is topical too.

Again, check out all of the Pulitzer winners and make some digital displays right now, especially of the journalism available in your databases. Build reading lists of the winners and finalists in all the book categories from this year, and going back 5 years because I am pretty sure. you have most of these in your digital. collections.

And please, familiarize yourselves with the book winners in particular as the requests are going to start coming in after yesterday's announcement. Click here for the NYT Books coverage for all of that info in one place.