1997 Pulitzer Prize

A listing of the Pulitzer Prize award winners for 1997:

Public Service	The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)	" ... for its comprehensive series analyzing the conditions that threaten the world's supply of fish."
Beat Reporting	Byron Acohido of The Seattle Times	" ... for his coverage of the aerospace industry, notably an exhaustive investigation of rudder control problems on the Boeing 737, which contributed to new FAA requirements for major improvements."
Spot News Photography	Annie Wells of The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California)	" ... for her dramatic photograph of a local firefighter rescuing a teenager from raging floodwaters."
Breaking News Reporting	Staff of Newsday	" ... for its enterprising coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 and its aftermath."
Commentary	Eileen McNamara of The Boston Globe	" ... for her many-sided columns on Massachusetts people and issues."
Criticism	Tim Page of The Washington Post	" ... for his lucid and illuminating music criticism."
Editorial Cartooning	Walt Handelsman of The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Editorial Writing	Michael Gartner of the Ames Tribune (Ames, Iowa)	" ... for his common sense editorials about issues deeply affecting the lives of people in his community."
Explanatory Journalism	Michael Vitez, reporter, and April Saul and Ron Cortes, photographers of The Philadelphia Inquirer	" ... for a series on the choices that confronted critically ill patients who sought to die with dignity."
Feature Photography	Alexander Zemlianichenko of the Associated Press	" ... for his photograph of Russian President Boris Yeltsin dancing at a rock concert during his campaign for re-election." (Moved by the Board from the Spot News Photography category)
Feature Writing	Lisa Pollak of The Baltimore Sun	" ... for her compelling portrait of a baseball umpire who endured the death of a son while knowing that another son suffers from the same deadly genetic disease."
International Reporting	John F. Burns of The New York Times	" ... for his courageous and insightful coverage of the harrowing regime imposed on Afghanistan by the Taliban."
Investigative Reporting	Eric Nalder, Deborah Nelson and Alex Tizon of The Seattle Times	" ... for their investigation of widespread corruption and inequities in the federally-sponsored housing program for Native Americans, which inspired much-needed reforms."
National Reporting	Staff of The Wall Street Journal	" ... for its coverage of the struggle against AIDS in all of its aspects, the human, the scientific and the business, in light of promising treatments for the disease."

• Biography or Autobiography:
  • Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (Scribner)
• Fiction:
  • Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)
• History:
  • Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution by Jack N. Rakove (Alfred A. Knopf)
• General Nonfiction:
  • Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris by Richard Kluger (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Poetry:
  • Alive Together: New and Selected Poems by Lisel Mueller (Louisiana State University Press)
• Drama:
  • No award given.^[1]
• Music;
  • Blood on the Fields by Wynton Marsalis (Boosey & Hawkes), premiered on January 28, 1997, at Woolsey Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

• Official website