\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/ogden_images.s3.amazonaws.com\/www.nashuatelegraph.com\/images\/2022\/05\/09190016\/AP22129765734740-834x840.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
This combination of photos shows cover art for, top row from left, “Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South” by Winfred Rembert, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, “Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America” by Nicole Eustace, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History, “Cuba: An American History” by Ada Ferrer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History, bottom row from left, “Frank: Sonnets” by Diane Seuss, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City” by Andrea Elliott, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and “The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family” by Joshua Cohen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. (Bloomsbury\/Liveright\/Scribner\/Graywolf\/Random House\/New York Review Books via AP)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Joshua Cohen\u2019s \u201cThe Netanyahus,\u201d<\/span> a comic and rigorous campus novel based on the true story of the father of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking a job in academia, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.<\/p>\n Benzion Netanyahu, who died in 2012, was a medieval historian and ultra-nationalist who taught at several American schools, including the University of Denver and Cornell University. \u201cThe Netanyahus\u201d<\/span> is set around 1959-60 and centers on a Jewish historian at a university loosely based on Cornell who is asked to help decide whether to hire the visiting Israeli scholar. The novel, subtitled \u201cAn Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family,\u201d<\/span> has been highly praised for its blend of wit and intellectual debate about Zionism and Jewish identity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an infuriating, frustrating, pretentious piece of work \u2014 and also absorbing, delightful, hilarious, breathtaking and the best and most relevant novel I\u2019ve read in what feels like forever,\u201d<\/span> The New York Times\u2019 Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote last June.<\/p>\n Many of the winners in the arts Monday were explorations of race and class, in the past and the present. Winners were also announced in several journalism categories.<\/p>\n James Ijames\u2019 \u201cFat Ham,\u201d<\/span> an adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cHamlet\u201d<\/span> set at a Black family\u2019s barbecue in the modern South, received the Pulitzer for drama. Raven Chacon, the first Native composer to win a Pulitzer, was honored in the music category for \u201cVoiceless Mass.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The late artist Winfred Rembert won in biography for \u201cChasing Me to My Grave: An Artist\u2019s Memoir of the Jim Crow South,\u201d<\/span> as told to Erin I. Kelly. Rembert, who survived years in prison and a near-lynching in rural Georgia in the 1960s, died last year at age 75.<\/p>\n In an interview Monday, Kelly spoke of the book\u2019s long and unexpected back story. She is a professor of philosophy at Tufts University and had come across his work several years ago while working on a different project, on criminal justice. She contacted Rembert, who was living in New Haven, Connecticut, and found him so compelling that she wanted to make sure his life was properly documented.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was both charismatic and down to earth,\u201d<\/span> she said. \u201cHe had an incredible grasp of language and an incredible visual memory.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rembert had been in poor health and died before \u201cChasing Me to My Grave\u201d<\/span> came out, although he did get to see an edited manuscript.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both felt a great sense of urgency to get the book done,\u201d<\/span> Kelly said.<\/p>\n Andrea Elliott\u2019s \u201cInvisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City,\u201d<\/span> which builds upon her New York Times investigative series about a homeless Black girl from Brooklyn, received a Pulitzer for general nonfiction. Elliott\u2019s book has already won the Gotham Prize for outstanding work about New York City.<\/p>\n Two prizes were awarded Monday in history: Nicole Eustace\u2019s \u201cCovered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America\u201d<\/span> and Ada Ferrer\u2019s \u201cCuba: An American History,\u201d<\/span> which traces the centuries-long relationship between U.S. and its Southern neighbor.<\/p>\n Diane Seuss won in poetry for \u201cfrank: sonnets. Her collection, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Prize, draws in part on her roots in rural Michigan and features her fierce and lyrical reflections on gender, class and substance abuse among other subjects.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father died very young. My mom raised my sister and me. Young me came to poetry by instinct alone,\u201d<\/span> Seuss said Monday, also citing influences ranging from Frank O\u2019Hara to Amy Winehouse. \u201cI consider \u2018frank: sonnets\u2019 a collaborative effort \u2014 with the living and the dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Chacon created \u201cVoiceless Mass\u201d<\/span> specifically for the pipe organ at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, where it premiered in November 2021. Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation. His art work, currently on display at the Whitney Biennial, is inspired by protestors at the Oceti Sakowin near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was my first time writing for a church organ and I wanted to make a statement about the space that this organ is housed in,\u201d<\/span> said Chacon, who is Din\u00e9, the Navajo word for \u201cthe people.\u201d<\/span> \u201cI wanted to think about the church\u2019s role in the forming of the country, particularly as it pertains to Indigenous people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His 2020 opera, \u201cSweet Land,\u201d<\/span> co-composed with Du Yun, was performed outdoors at the Los Angeles State Historic Park earned critical praise for its revisionist telling of American history using different narratives simultaneously. The opera was awarded best opera by the Music Critics Association of North America for 2021.<\/p>\n Chacon has been mentoring hundreds of Native high school composers in the writing of string quartets through the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project since 2004.<\/p>\n Chacon told The Associated Press in an interview after learning of the Pulitzer win that he wants his work to stand as a reminder that Indigenous people are involved in chamber music and classical music.<\/p>\n \u201cI am happy that this work was heard. I think overall chamber music is not something that can always be accessible to a broad audience,\u201d<\/span> Chacon said. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for anyone to listen to chamber music and I am happy I am able to contribute to that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez congratulated Chacon, saying the artist exemplifies the tremendous potential of Navajos.<\/p>\n \u201cHis award showcases the talent, innovation and creativity of Indigenous people and shows our young people that anything is possible through hard work and prayer,\u201d<\/span> Nez said in a statement to the AP.<\/p>\n Chacon graduated from the University of New Mexico and the California Institute of the Arts and is scheduled to start a residency at the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage in Philadelphia in 2022.<\/p>\n His solo artworks have been displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institute\u2019s American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian and many more.<\/p>\n Drama finalists included \u201cSelling Kabul\u201d<\/span> by Sylvia Khoury and \u201cKristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord\u201d<\/span> by Kristina Wong.<\/p>\n The drama award, which includes a $15,000 prize, is \u201cfor a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.\u201d<\/span> Ijames is a Philadelphia-based playwright and Wilma Theater co-artistic director whose \u201cFat Ham\u201d<\/span> production was streamed last summer.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\nNewsletter<\/h3>\n