We could’ve predicted that ending!
Brooklynites are surrounded by culture, diversity, and keep hustlin’ every day, so it’s no surprise that this year’s list of Pulitzer Prize winners was stacked with Kings Countians. And the borough’s leader agreed, saying he hopes the honorees will set a great example for fledging scribes to fill the esteemed list for years to come.
“Any sentence about exemplary literature in America has to begin with Brooklyn,” said Borough President Adams. “These writers are a source of celebration and inspiration for our budding authors, playwrights, and poets, especially those who come from communities with stories that have yet to be told.”
Boerum Hill resident Lynn Nottage picked up her second Pulitzer for her latest play, “Sweat,” a drama about struggling steel factory workers in Pennsylvania and the strife that accompanies it. The play premiered in Oregon in 2015 and enjoyed a successful off-Broadway run before debuting on the Great White Way in March. When she’s not writing award-winning plays, she dedicates her spare time as a member of Bric’s board of directors.
In the literature field, Pulitzer jurors honored Fort Greene author Colson Whitehead with the prize for his novel “The Underground Railroad.” The book follows two slaves who make a run for freedom by using the secret escape route, and was highly lauded by critics, including President Obama, who called it a “terrific book, powerful.”
Flatlands poet Tyehimba Jess was bestowed with the auspicious accolade for “Olio,” his collection of poems that detail the lives of African American performers from the Civil War through World War I, including the history of blues, work songs, and hymns along the way.
The list of winners also includes Brooklyn natives who made the inexplicable decision to move elsewhere such, as Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, who was born in Kings County and used to live in Brooklyn Heights, and theater critic Hilton Als, who won the award for his New Yorker critiques.
In the award’s 100 years, this isn’t the first year that Brooklyn has won big — recent winners include Brooklyn Heights environmental news website Inside Climate News, which took home the journalism honor in 2013 and Carroll Gardens poet Vijay Seshadri, who received it in 2014.
Winners in each of the prize’s 21 categories receive a medal and $15,000 in cash.
