Winners and Finalists

These are the winners and finalists for the 1998 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

Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald (winner), for coverage of the blizzard, flood and fire that devastated much of the city; Los Angeles Times, for work of reporter Sonia Nazario and photographer Clarence Williams on children with addict parents; the Seattle Times, for work of Duff Wilson on recycling toxic waste into fertilizer.

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Breaking news reporting

Staff of the Los Angeles Times (winner), for coverage of a botched bank robbery and shootout in North Hollywood; John Dennis Harrigan, publisher of weekly the News and Sentinel of Colebrook, N.H., for coverage of a shooting spree that killed his managing editor and four others; Mike McAlary of the New York Daily News (winner for commentary), for coverage of alleged police station house brutalization of a Haitian immigrant.

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Investigative reporting

Gary Cohn and Will Englund of the Sun of Baltimore (winner), for series on dangers of dismantling discarded ships; Lisa Getter, Jeff Leen and Gail Epstein of the Miami Herald, for reporting how police gained overtime by serving as unnecessary witnesses; staff of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, for stories on financial corruption charged to president of National Baptist Convention.

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Explanatory journalism

Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune (winner), for reporting on the Human Genome Diversity Project; Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times (winner for beat reporting), for Supreme Court coverage; David Barstow of the St. Petersburg Times, for coverage of the legal struggle against the tobacco industry.

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Beat reporting

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times (winner), for Supreme Court coverage; Keith Bradsher of the New York Times, for stories on safety and environmental problems of sports utility vehicles; Jason DeParle of the New York Times, for coverage of national welfare reform; Laurie Garrett of Newsday of Long Island, N.Y., for reporting on public health care crisis in former Soviet Union.

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National reporting

Russell Carollo and Jeff Nesmith of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (winner), for reporting on flaws and mismanagement in military health care; Douglas Frantz of the New York Times, for reporting on the Church of Scientology and its tax status; David Wood of Newhouse News Service, for post-Cold War challenges to U.S. military.

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International reporting

Staff of the New York Times (winner), for series on drug corruption in Mexico; Nicholas D. Kristoff of the New York Times, for reporting from Africa and Asia; John Pomfret of the Washington Post, for series on Laurent Kabila’s rise to power in Zaire.

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Feature writing

Thomas French of the St. Petersburg Times (winner), for stories on three-year investigation of murders of a vacationing mother and two daughters; Steve Giegerich of the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, for story about a bond between four medical students and the cadaver they studied; J.R. Moehringer of the Los Angeles Times, for reporting on a boxer’s rise and fall.

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Commentary

Mike McAlary of the New York Daily News (winner), for coverage of alleged police station house brutalization of a Haitian immigrant; Bob Greene of the Chicago Tribune, for columns about children mishandled by welfare and judicial systems; Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post Writers Group, for columns on various national subjects; Patricia Smith of the Boston Globe for columns on urban topics.

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Criticism

Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times (winner), for writing on contemporary literature; Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal, for columns on television and its place in politics and culture; Peter Rainer of weekly New Times Los Angeles, for writing about film.

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Editorial writing

Bernard L. Stein of the Riverdale (N.Y.) Press, weekly (winner), for editorials on politics and other New York issues; George B. Pyle of the Salina (Kan.) Journal, for editorials on local issues; Clint Talbott of the Colorado Daily of Boulder, for accounts of the legal ordeal of a rape victim.

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Editorial cartooning

Stephen P. Breen of the Asbury Park Press (winner); Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times; Jeff MacNelly of the Chicago Tribune and Joel Pett of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

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Spot news photography

Martha Rial of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (winner), for portraits of survivors of Rwanda and Burundi conflicts; Jean-Marc Bouju of Associated Press, for sequence of rebel soldiers beating and executing a man in Zaire; staff of the Grand Forks Herald, for coverage of floods.

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Feature photography

Clarence Williams of the Los Angeles Times (winner), for pictures of children with addict parents; Allan Detrich of Block News Alliance, for photos of underground railroad for children fleeing sexual abuse; Joseph V. Stefanchik of the Dallas Morning News, for photos of the effects of war and land mines in Angola.

ARTS

Fiction

“American Pastoral,” by Philip Roth (winner); “Underworld,” by Don DeLillo; “Bear and His Daughter: Stories,” by Robert Stone.

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Drama

“How I Learned To Drive,” by Paula Vogel (winner); “Freedomland,” by Amy Freed; “Three Days of Rain,” by Richard Greenberg.

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History

“Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion,” by Edward J. Larson (winner); “Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America,” by J. Anthony Lukas; “Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History,” by Rogers M. Smith.

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Biography

“Personal History,” by Katharine Graham (winner); “Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life,” by James H. Jones; “Whittaker Chambers: A Biography,” by Sam Tanenhaus.

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Poetry

“Black Zodiac,” by Charles Wright (winner); “Desire,” by Frank Bidart; “The Vigil,” by C.K. Williams.

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General nonfiction

“Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,” by Jared Diamond (winner); “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster,” by Jon Krakauer; “How the Mind Works,” by Steven Pinker.

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Music

“String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis,” by Aaron Jay Kernis (winner); “Century Rolls,” by John Adams; “Horntrio,” by Yehudi Wyner.

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Special citation

George Gershwin, on the centennial of his birth.

Source: Associated Press