The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, honoring a diverse range of works including a feminist play set in the 1970s and a World War I novel written in a single sentence. Daniel Kraus won the fiction award for Angel Down, a narrative that unfolds as a stylistic tour-de-force blending allegory, magical realism, and science fiction. Bess Wohl received the drama prize for Liberation, a memory play that revisits feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, tackling misogyny, internalized homophobia, domestic abuse, and gender roles.
History and Biography Winners
Two books rooted in the founding of the United States were recognized. Jill Lepore's We the People: A History of the US Constitution won the history prize, while Amanda Vaill's Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution took the biography award.
Other Notable Winners
Yiyun Li's Things in Nature Merely Grow, a blunt account of the suicides of her two sons, won the memoir-autobiography prize. Brian Goldstone's There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America was awarded the general nonfiction prize. The poetry prize went to Juliana Spahr's Ars Poeticas, and the music award was given to Gabriela Lena Frank for Picaflor: A Future Myth, a symphonic work inspired by Andean legend and California wildfires.
Kraus, 50, has had a prolific career spanning fantasy, horror, and young adult novels, including collaborations with filmmakers George Romero and Guillermo del Toro. Pulitzer officials praised Angel Down as a cohesive whole told in a single sentence. Wohl's Liberation features second-wave feminists from all walks of life and includes a scene where six actors disrobe. The play is expected to receive a Tony nomination for best new play. The Guardian's Adrian Horton gave Liberation a four-star review, noting its provocative questions and potent grief.
