The winners of the Pulitzer Prizes will be announced two weeks later than planned, the Associated Press reports.
The announcement of the prestigious journalism and literature awards had originally been scheduled for April 20, but will now take place on May 4, the prizes’ administrator, Dana Canedy, said. The delay was called because so many journalists are busy covering the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As they focus on this critical mission, this postponement will provide additional time to thoroughly evaluate the 2020 Pulitzer finalists,” she said.
The Pulitzers typically cap off literary awards season, coming after the announcements of the winners of the Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prizes, the National Book Awards, and the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
The seven winners of the 2019 arts Pulitzers included Richard Power for his novel The Overstory, Eliza Griswold for her nonfiction book Amity and Prosperity, and Jeffrey C. Stewart for his biography, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke. Carlos Lozada, who reviews books for the Washington Post, won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Canedy said that recent events demonstrate “literature and the arts’ ability to transport and uplift the human spirit during trying times.”
“The Pulitzer Prizes will continue its more than century-long mandate to celebrate such excellence,” she said.
The Pulitzer Prize luncheon in May, at which winners accept their awards, has also been postponed, but no new date for the event has been announced.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
