There was drama at the Pulitzer Prize last night. No fiction prize was awarded for the first time in 35 years. The judges were unable to reach a decision in the race between David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, Karen Russel’s Swamplandia! and Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams.
Literary bigwigs in America have expressed shock. Jane Smiley — who won the prize in 1992 for her reimagining of King Lear, A Thousand Acres — sent an email to The Press Association saying, ‘I can’t believe there wasn’t a worthy one. It’s a shame. But sometimes a selection committee really cannot agree, and giving no award is the outcome. Too bad.’
Meanwhile, John Lewis Gaddis took the biography award for his life George F. Kennan, 24-year-old Sara Ganim won the journalism prize and the late Manning Marable secured the history title for Malcolm X: A life of reinvention, which was published shortly after his death.
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