Pulitzer jury recommendations by category for 2004

<br>Finalists for the 2004 Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer juries make up to three recommendations in each category without listing them in order of preference. The Pulitzer Board, which awards the prizes, is

Tuesday, April 6th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Finalists for the 2004 Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer juries make up to three recommendations in each category without listing them in order of preference. The Pulitzer Board, which awards the prizes, is not limited to those recommendations in choosing a winner.

JOURNALISM:

PUBLIC SERVICE _ The New York Times for the work of David Barstow and Lowell Bergman that examined death and injury among American workers and exposure of employers who break basic safety rules. (The nomination was moved by the board from the investigative reporting category, where it was also entered.)

Also nominated: The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., for its portrayal of how delays in Kentucky's criminal justice system harmed both victims and defendants alike; The Providence Journal for its coverage of the causes and consequences of a nightclub fire that killed 100 people; The Seattle Times for Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan's work that revealed sexual misconduct by male coaches who preyed on female students and escaped discipline or prosecution.

BREAKING NEWS REPORTING _ The Los Angeles Times staff for its coverage of massive wildfires in Southern California.

Also nominated: The Miami Herald staff for its search for the cause of the Columbia space shuttle disaster; the staff of Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for its coverage of the summertime blackout that stretched over a vast area of the United States.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING _ Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr of The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, for their series on atrocities by Tiger Force, an elite U.S. Army platoon, during the Vietnam War.

Also nominated: David Barstow and Lowell Bergman of The New York Times for their examination of death and injury among American workers and exposure of employers who break basic safety rules (moved by the board to the public service category, where it was also entered); David Ottaway and Joe Stephens of The Washington Post for stories which revealed questionable practices by an environmental organization and produced sweeping reforms.

EXPLANATORY REPORTING _ Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton of The Wall Street Journal for their examination of aneurysms, an often overlooked medical condition that kills thousands of Americans each year.

Also nominated: Erika Niedowski of The (Baltimore) Sun for her account of how Johns Hopkins Children's Center let a toddler die of severe dehydration and how her mother joined with the hospital to spare other families such heartache; Bernard Wolfson, William Heisel and Chris Knap of The Orange County Register for their exploration of the quality of care at 26 local hospitals and the creation of a ``report card'' to help consumers make medical decisions.

BEAT REPORTING _ Daniel Golden of The Wall Street Journal for his stories on university admission preferences given to the children of alumni and donors.

Also nominated: Ellen Barry of The Boston Globe for her stories about neglected people with mental health problems; Barton Gellman of The Washington Post for his coverage of the search for forbidden weapons in Iraq.

NATIONAL REPORTING _ The Los Angeles Times staff for its examination of the tactics that have made Wal-Mart the largest company in the world with effects across American towns and developing countries.

Also nominated: S. Lynne Walker of Copley News Service (writing for The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.) for a look at how Mexican immigration transformed an all-white Midwestern town; The Wall Street Journal staff for its stories on how hidden decision-makers make life-and-death choices about who gets health care in America.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING _ Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post for his capture of the voices and emotions of Iraqis during and after the war.

Also nominated: Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman of The Wall Street Journal for stories that shed new light on starvation in Africa and prompted international agencies to rethink their policies; David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times for a rare, close-up view of combat as American soldiers invaded Iraq.

FEATURE WRITING _ No Award.

Nominated as finalists: Robert Lee Hotz of the Los Angeles Times for his story on efforts to unravel the mystery of space shuttle Columbia disaster; Anne Hull and Tamara Jones of The Washington Post for their exploration of the lives of wounded soldiers returning from Iraq; Patricia Wen of The Boston Globe for chronicling aggressive efforts by states to terminate the rights of parents.

COMMENTARY _ Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald for columns that spoke ``to ordinary people on often divisive issues.''

Also nominated: Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times for columns that ``often gave voice to forgotten people trapped in misery''; and Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for columns that ``confronted sacred cows and hot topics''.

CRITICISM _ Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times for reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor.

Also nominated: Nicolai Ouroussoff of the Los Angeles Times for architectural criticism that stretched from his hometown's new Disney Hall to the rubble in Baghdad; Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer for ``passionate and insightful'' architectural criticism.

EDITORIAL WRITING _ William Stall of the Los Angeles Times for editorials analyzing California's troubled state government.

Also nominated: Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times for editorials that illuminated a variety of life situations; Andres Martinez of The New York Times for editorials that exposed the harmful global effects of American agricultural trade policy.

EDITORIAL CARTOONING _ Matt Davies of The Journal News, White Plains, N.Y., for his cartoons on an array of topics.

Also nominated: Steve Sack of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis for his cartoons that used creative metaphors to achieve high-impact results; Garry Trudeau of Universal Press Syndicate for his ``Doonesbury'' cartoons.

BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY _ David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer of The Dallas Morning News for photographs depicting both the violence and poignancy of the war with Iraq.

Also nominated: The Associated Press staff for its panoramic portrayal of the war in Iraq; Chris Hondros of Getty Images for his coverage of the upheaval in Liberia (moved by the jury from the feature photography category).

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY _ Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times for her behind-the-scenes look at the effects of civil war in Liberia.

Also nominated: Pauline Lubens, Dai Sugano and Patrick Tehan of the San Jose Mercury News for their coverage of California's recall election; and Damir Sagolj of Reuters for his picture of an American medic in Iraq cuddling a child whose mother had just been killed (moved by the jury from the breaking news photography category).

LETTERS AND DRAMA PRIZES:

FICTION _ ``The Known World'' by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/HarperCollins).

Also nominated: ``American Woman'' by Susan Choi (HarperCollins); ``Evidence of Things Unseen'' by Marianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster).

DRAMA _ ``I Am My Own Wife'' by Doug Wright.

Also nominated: ``Man from Nebraska'' by Tracy Letts; ``Omnium Gatherum'' by Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros.

HISTORY _ ``A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration'' by Steven Hahn (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).

Also nominated: ``They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967'' by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster); ``Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center'' by Daniel Okrent (Viking).

BIOGRAPHY _ ``Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' by William Taubman (W.W. Norton).

Also nominated: ``Isaac Newton'' by James Gleick (Pantheon Books); and ``Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work'' by Hayden Herrera (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

POETRY _ ``Walking to Martha's Vineyard'' by Franz Wright (Alfred A. Knopf).

Also nominated: ``Middle Earth'' by Henri Cole (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); ``Eyeshot'' by Heather McHugh (Wesleyan University Press).

GENERAL NONFICTION _ ``Gulag: A History'' by Anne Applebaum (Doubleday).

Also nominated: ``Rembrandt's Jews'' by Steven Nadler (The University of Chicago Press); ``The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military'' by Dana Priest (W.W. Norton).

MUSIC _ ``Tempest Fantasy'' by Paul Moravec, premiered on May 2, 2003 at the Morgan Library, New York City.

Also nominated: ``Piano Concerto No. 3'' by Peter Lieberson, premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra on Nov. 26, 2003 in Minneapolis, Minn., (G. Schirmer, Inc.); and ``Cello Counterpoint'' by Steve Reich, premiered on Oct. 18, 2003 at The Krannert Center, Champaign-Urbana, Ill. (Boosey & Hawkes).