1990 Pulitzer Prize

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1990. Two awards for Public Service were given this year. 1990 was also the last year that awards were given for General News Reporting and Specialized Reporting - these categories were changed to Spot News Reporting and Beat Reporting the following year.

Journalism awards

*Public Service:
**"Washington Daily News" (Washington, North Carolina), For revealing that the city's water supply was contaminated with carcinogens, a problem that the local government had neither disclosed nor corrected over a period of eight years.
*Public Service:
**"The Philadelphia Inquirer", For reporting by Gilbert M. Gaul that disclosed how the American blood industry operates with little government regulation or supervision.
*General News Reporting:
**Staff of "San Jose Mercury News", For its detailed coverage of the October 17, 1989, Bay Area earthquake and its aftermath.
*Investigative Reporting:
**Lou Kilzer and Chris Ison of "Star Tribune", For reporting that exposed a network of local citizens who had links to members of the St. Paul fire department and who profited from fires, including some described by the fire department itself as being of suspicious origin.
*Explanatory Journalism:
**David A. Vise and Steve Coll of "Washington Post", For stories scrutinizing the Securities and Exchange Commission and the way it has been affected by the policies of its former chairman, John Shad.
*Specialized Reporting:
**Tamar Stieber of "Albuquerque Journal", For persistent reporting that linked a rare blood disorder to an over-the-counter dietary supplement, L-Tryptophan, and led to a national recall of the product.
*National Reporting:
**Ross Anderson, Bill Dietrich, Mary Ann Gwinn and Eric Nalder of "Seattle Times", For coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath.
*International Reporting:
**Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn of New York Times, For knowledgeable reporting from China on the mass movement for democracy and its subsequent suppression.
*Feature Writing:
**Dave Curtin of "Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph", For a gripping account of a family's struggle to recover after its members were severely burned in an explosion that devastated their home.
*Commentary:
**Jim Hoagland of "Washington Post", For searching and prescient columns on events leading up to the Gulf War and on the political problems of Mikhail Gorbachev.
*Criticism:
**David Shaw of "Los Angeles Times", For his critiques of the way in which the media, including his own paper, reported the McMartin Pre-School child molestation case.
*Editorial Writing:
**Ron Casey (editor) , Harold Jackson and Joey Kennedy of "Birmingham News", For their editorial campaign analyzing inequities in Alabama's tax system and proposing needed reforms.
*Editorial Cartooning:
**Tom Toles of "Buffalo News", For his work during the year as exemplified by the cartoon "First Amendment."
*Spot News Photography:
**Greg Marinovich of Associated Press, For a series of photographs of supporters of South Africa's African National Congress brutally murdering a man they believed to be a Zulu spy.
*Feature Photography:
**William Snyder of Dallas Morning News, For his photographs of ill and orphaned children living in subhuman conditions in Romania.

Letters awards

*Fiction:
**"The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" by Oscar Hijuelos
*History:
**"" by Stanley Karnow
*Biography or Autobiography:
**"Machiavelli in Hell" by Sebastian de Grazia
*Poetry:
**"The World Doesn't End" by Charles Simic
*General Non-Fiction:
**"And Their Children After Them" by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson

Arts awards

*Drama:
**"The Piano Lesson" by August Wilson
*Music:
**"" by Mel PowellPremiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on January 26, 1990.

External links

*http://www.pulitzer.org/cyear/1990w.html