Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mark Johnson was a finalist in the Pulitzer awards for feature writing for his work on the relationships medical students form their fellow students and cadavers in their gross anatomy classes. But inexplicably, according to Pulitzer observers, neither Johnson nor either of the two other finalists in that category won the gold.
Here’s a brief mention in a story about this year’s Pulitzer winners: 2014 PULITZER WINNERS IN JOURNALISM AND ARTS.
While some Pulitzer watchers took the selection committee to task for not explaining the reason no winner emerged, in Sandra Oshiro’s article, Pulitzer board’s no-award in feature writing goes unexplained, on the Poynter Institute’s website at poynter.org, Pulitzer Prizes administrator Sig Gissler says, “It takes a majority of the 17 voting board members to declare a winner. With three nominations, clearly no single finalist drew the nine votes required to walk away with the prize. The lack of a recipient also suggests that none of finalists blew away the judges. Yet each of the nominations represented substantial work.”
That seems to explain it pretty clearly, so far as I’m concerned.
Take a look at CWW’s contest winners and honorable mentions at http://www.wiswriters.org/2013%20winners.htm, and plan to attend the annual awards banquet on May 10 at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. Details and reservation form are at http://www.wiswriters.org/banquet.htm.