And the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners are...
The least surprising and most deserving win in the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced just hours ago. A few years ago I set a goal to read every winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction dating back to its founding in 1948, so the announcement of the awards each year is always exciting for me.
The 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Only eight authors have ever won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and, until today, only one has ever one both awards for the same book (Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News). Today, Percival Everett joins this exclusive club after winning the Pulitzer for his stunning masterpiece, James.
Back in August, after finishing James, I wrote that I was confident this was the book that would win the 2025 Pulitzer because of its astonishing contribution to American literature. I’m so glad the judging panel agreed. Here’s what they had to say in granting the prize:
An accomplished reconsideration of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ that gives agency to Jim to illustrate the absurdity of racial supremacy and provide a new take on the search for family and freedom.
This is a book that perfectly encapsulates “distinguished fiction by an American author” dealing with American life. I’m also excited to add the finalists The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones and Mice 1961 by Stacey Levine to my to read list. You can read my review for the third finalist, Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, here.
Below is my review of James, which I published as part of my 2024 Gold Medalists.
James - Percival Everett
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an almost universally known story within America: Jim and Huck board a raft and ride the Mississippi River towards a nebulous idea of freedom after Jim hears that he is to be sold and Huck learns his abusive father is back in town. James tells this iconic story from the perspective of “Jim,” a diminutive given to him by his enslavers that diminishes James’ intellect and humanity. Many of the adventures in Twain’s book remain within the pages of Everett’s, but this time they are recounted by a man who chooses to travel south instead of north with hopes of returning to free his wife and daughter, highlighting the agency and cunning required to survive in the antebellum era. While I think general knowledge of Huck Finn is helpful, I don’t think it is necessary to have read the book to appreciate James and Everett’s talent. The singularity of the story of James in and of itself allows James to stand firmly on its own.
The 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
This year, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama is Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which I had the pleasure of seeing performed on Broadway in March. Here’s what the committee had to say about this incredible show:
A play about the complex dynamics and legacy of an upper middle class African-American family whose patriarch was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, a skillful blend of drama and comedy that probes how different generations define heritage.
The playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a two-time Pulitzer finalist. Purpose is his first win. Purpose runs on Broadway until July 6 and I recommend seeing it before it closes. Not only is the writing great, but the cast that brings the show to life is incredible. You can also catch Pulitzer Finalist Cole Escola’s Oh Mary before it closes on September 28.
Below is my review of Purpose, which I published as part of my Winter 2025 Theater Revue.
Purpose
Play, Broadway (Hayes Theatre), limited run (March 17 - July 6)
Purpose is a brand-new play by the popular young playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Purpose debuted at Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago and began previews on Broadway in late February. The cast includes three members of the Steppenwolf company and, when it transferred to Broadway, added the remarkable Kara Young (2024 Tony Award winner for best featured actress in Purlie Victorious), Harry Lennix (Radio Golf), and LaTanya Richardson Jackson (A Raisin in the Sun, To Kill a Mockingbird).
Purpose takes place over the course of one weekend at the Jasper family home in Chicago. The family has gathered ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of the mother, but in reality, the gathering is timed to welcome Junior, the eldest son and a politician, home from a two-year stint in prison for campaign finance fraud. His wife, a reluctant attendee at the weekend’s festivities, is scheduled to serve her own prison sentence for tax fraud in a few weeks.
The Jaspers are an influential family modeled on the family of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (including the crimes and prison sentences of Jesse Jackson, Jr. and his wife). Solomon, the patriarch, is a pastor and civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. His reputation is his currency, but Junior’s crimes and his youngest son Nazareth’s decision to drop out of divinity school has dealt a blow to the family name. When Nazareth arrives with an unexpected guest, the family’s secrets and unaddressed issues bubble to the surface in dramatic and comedic form.
I highly recommend catching this play while it runs on Broadway. Jacobs-Jenkins is a talented, generational playwright while Kara Young is such a delight to get to watch perform.
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