ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Pulitzer Prizes are among the most prestigious awards in American journalism, books and arts. And this year's honorees have just been announced. The prize is governed by Columbia University. Administrators there responded to pro-Palestinian protests with heavy police presence and a campus lockdown that impacted journalists reporting at the school. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: In announcing the awards, the Pulitzer Board largely stayed away from commenting directly on Columbia University's handling of journalists during the recent protests with the exception of this from Neil Brown, Pulitzer Prize Board co-chair.
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NEIL BROWN: On college campuses in state capitols and at local school boards, journalists are locked out in order to thwart their independent reporting.
LIMBONG: But that didn't stop some solid journalism in 2023. The award for public service went to a team at ProPublica for their reporting on billionaire Harlan Crow's close relationship to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, including paying for private boarding school tuition for Thomas' nephew. Here's ProPublica's Justin Elliott talking about the story to NPR last year.
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JUSTIN ELLIOTT: The larger picture here is Crow has really been funding the life of a Supreme Court justice and his family.
LIMBONG: The award for breaking news reporting went to the staff of Lookout Santa Cruz, Calif., for their sustained reporting on catastrophic flooding and mudslides. On the books side of things, general nonfiction went to Nathan Thrall for his book "A Day In The Life Of Abed Salama," about a Palestinian father in Jerusalem looking for answers after his 5-year-old son died in an accident. Here's Thrall on NPR last year.
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NATHAN THRALL: The main thing I want is for people to feel viscerally what it is to live in this place for both Jews and Palestinians.
LIMBONG: And the fiction prize went to Jayne Anne Phillips' novel, "Night Watch," about a girl and her mother in an asylum following the Civil War. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
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