2008 Pulitzer Prize winners
The 2008 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists:
JOURNALISM:

Public Service: The Washington Post for exposing the mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. Finalists: The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer for reporting on the effects of the mortgage crisis; Newsday of Long Island for investigation of dangerous gaps on railroad platforms.

Breaking News Reporting: The Washington Post staff for its coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. Finalists: The (Boise) Idaho Statesman staff for its coverage of the Sen. Larry Craig scandal; The New York Times staff for coverage of a fire in the Bronx that killed nine people, eight of them children.

Investigative Reporting: Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune staff. The Times won for stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other products imported from China; the Tribune for exposing faulty regulation of toys, car seats and cribs. Finalist: Miles Moffeit and Susan Greene of The Denver Post for reports on the destruction of evidence in criminal cases.

Explanatory Reporting: Amy Harmon of The New York Times for her examination of the dilemmas and ethical issues that accompany DNA testing. Finalists: Beth Daley of The Boston Globe for coverage of how global warming affects New England residents; the staff of The Oregonian in Portland for reports on a breakthrough in producing microprocessors.

Local Reporting: David Umhoefer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for stories on the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees. Finalists: Chris Davis, Matthew Doig and Tiffany Lankes of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune for exposing predatory teachers; Jeff Pillets, John Brennan and Tim Nostand of The Record, Hackensack, N.J., for a probe of favoritism and questionable state loans in a plan to build luxury housing on old landfills.

National Reporting: Jo Becker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post for their exploration of Vice President Dick Cheney's influence on national policy. Finalists: The New York Times staff for stories about CIA interrogation techniques criticized as torture; Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune for his examination of racial issues in America.

International Reporting: Steve Fainaru of The Washington Post for his series on private security contractors in Iraq that operate outside most of the laws governing American forces. Finalists: The New York Times staff for coverage of the U.S. military's efforts to reduce sectarian violence in Iraq; The Wall Street Journal staff for reports on the dismantling of democracy in Russia under Vladimir Putin.

Feature Writing: Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post for chronicling the violinist Joshua Bell as he played beautiful music in a subway station filled with unheeding commuters. Finalists: Thomas Curwen of the Los Angeles Times for an account of a grizzly bear attack and the recovery of the two victims; Kevin Vaughan of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, for a retelling of a school bus-train accident that killed 20 children in 1961.

Commentary: Steven Pearlstein of The Washington Post for columns exploring the nation's complex economic ills. Finalists: Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, for columns on alienated teenagers in a dangerous city neighborhood; John Kass of the Chicago Tribune for columns on the abuse of local political power and other topics.

Criticism: Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe for his command of the visual arts, from film and photography to painting. Finalists: Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post for movie reviews and essays; Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer for architecture critiques.

Editorial Writing: No award. Finalists: Maureen Downey of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for editorials on harsh sentences for consensual sex by teenagers; Rodger Jones of The Dallas Morning News for editorials calling for mandatory roll call votes on statewide legislation; the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal staff for a campaign against abuses in the governor's veto power.

Editorial Cartooning: Michael Ramirez of Investor's Business Daily for what the judges called his "provocative cartoons." Finalists: Tom Batiuk of King Features for a sequence in "Funky Winterbean" portraying a woman's struggle with breast cancer; and Clay Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor for cartoons "marked by sharp focus and pungent simplicity."

Breaking News Photography: Adrees Latif of Reuters for his photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar. Finalists: Mahmud Hams of Agence France-Presse for a picture of a missile falling on a target in the Gaza Strip while Palestinians scramble for safety; and the Los Angeles Times staff for photos of wildfires devastating parts of California.

Feature Photography: Preston Gannaway of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor for her chronicle of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness. Finalists: David Guttenfelder of The Associated Press for photos of Vietnamese children affected by toxic Agent Orange decades after the war; Mona Reed of The Dallas Morning News for pictures of disadvantaged Texans hidden amid the state's prosperity.

ARTS:

Fiction: "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books). Finalists: "Tree of Smoke" by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and "Shakespeare's Kitchen" by Lore Segal (The New Press).

Drama: "August: Osage County," by Tracy Letts. Finalists: "Yellow Face" by David Henry Hwang; "Dying City" by Christopher Shinn.

History: "What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848," by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press). Finalists: "Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power" by Robert Dallek (HarperCollins); "The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War" by the late David Halberstam (Hyperion).

Biography: "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father," by John Matteson (W.W. Norton). Finalists: "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein" by Martin Duberman (Alfred A. Knopf); "The Life of Kingsley Amis" by Zachary Leader (Pantheon).

Poetry: "Time and Materials," by Robert Hass (Ecco/HarperCollins) and "Failure," by Philip Schultz (Harcourt). Finalist: "Messenger: New and Selected Poems," 1976-2006" by Ellen Bryant Voigt (W.W. Norton).

General Nonfiction: "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945," by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins). "The Cigarette Century" by Allan Brandt (Basic Books); "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century" by Alex Ross (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

MUSIC: "The Little Match Girl Passion," by David Lang, premiered Oct. 25 at Carnegie Hall, New York. (G. Schirmer, Inc.) Finalists: "Meanwhile" by Stephen Hartke (ELR Music Publishing Inc.); "Concerto for Viola" by Robert Sierra (Subito Music Publishing).

SPECIAL CITATION: Bob Dylan, "for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."
tzer Prize Winners