Industry & Advocacy News
April 19, 2016
Yesterday afternoon we received a bit of good news toward the end of an otherwise gloomy day. The 2016 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists were announced, and among them were two Guild members.
Authors Guild council member T.J. Stiles won the Pulitzer Prize in History for Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (which was also a finalist in the Biography category), and Authors Guild member Margaret Verble was a Finalist in Fiction for her debut novel Maud’s Line.
Remarkably, this is T.J.’s second Pulitzer, having won in 2010 for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The Pulitzers and other prizes do more than recognize excellent work by American authors in a society that often undervalues that work; such prizes also enable the work itself to continue by recognizing the costs associated with the creation of serious nonfiction and literature, and offsetting them to some extent. In any event, the Pulitzers provide an occasion to reflect on the great value—social, intellectual, and imaginative—authors bring to our democracy.
Congratulations to T.J. and Margaret for these much-deserved honors.
