Princetonians Named Pulitzer Prize Winners and Finalists

Three faculty members and one alumna were recognized as winners or finalists in the Pulitzer Prize book categories. Natalie Obiko Pearson ’99, a senior investigative reporter for Bloomberg News, also won for her reporting for the graphic novel “trAPPed.”

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Memoir Winner

Things in Nature Merely Grow

Yiyun Li, professor of creative writing

In this searing memoir, Li writes about survival and loss after both of her sons died by suicide. Instead of focusing on conventional grief, she traces how activities like writing, music, and the natural world became ways for her to carry on in the aftermath of immense tragedy. Things In Nature Merely Grow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) redefines grief as something experienced and lived alongside reality itself.

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Illustrated Reporting and Commentary WINNER

trAPPed

Natalie Obiko Pearson ’99

This investigative graphic novel documents 
the experience of a neurologist in India who is held under “digital arrest” by her phone for eight days. Pearson and Suparna Sharma traveled thousands of miles across India to conduct interviews, collect documents, and gather photos and videos. The graphic was  illustrated by Anand RK based on their reporting to depict the havoc this widespread scam is causing to hundreds of thousands of people in India.

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Nonfiction Finalist

Mother Emanuel

Kevin Sack, visiting lecturer

On June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white supremacist killed nine people during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The chruch received national attention in the aftermath of the shooting, but as Sack explains in Mother Emanuel (Crown), the church  has a longer, lesser known history.

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Poetry Finalist

The Intentions of Thunder

Patricia Smith, professor of creative writing

This collection encompasses essential works from Smith’s distinguished career. Highlighting the powerful clarity and originality of her voice, The Intentions of Thunder (Scribner) moves through grief, history, and hope for the future. Smith’s language crackles with precision and intensity, revealing the breadth of her emotional and imaginative range.

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Fiction Finalist

Audition

Katie Kitamura ’99

Do we ever really know the people that we love? That is the question at the heart of Kitamura’s thrilling novel Audition (Riverhead Books). It follows a middle-aged actor who meets a younger man at a restaurant in Manhattan. From there, readers see the struggles the woman faces as she continues to get to know the younger man. Kitamura unpacks the various roles people play in life and multiple versions of a person that can exist.