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April 18, 2006
The Pulitzer Prize announces its 2006 winners
"Claudia Emerson won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Late Wife (Louisiana State University Press). Also nominated were Elizabeth Alexander for American Sublime (Graywolf Press) and Dean Young for Elegy on Toy Piano (University of Pittsburgh Press).
The winner in the fiction category is Geraldine Brooks for her novel March (Viking). Also nominated were E.L. Doctorow for The March (Random House) and Lee Martin for The Bright Forever (Shaye Areheart Books/Crown Publishing).
Emerson and Brooks will each receive $10,000."
Courtesy P&W
More on the Fiction winner, Geraldine Brooks: "A riff on an American classic wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
NEW YORK - Geraldine Brooks has taken a minor character in a major American novel and transformed his story into the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
“March,” Brooks’ invention of the Civil War adventures of the absent father from Louisa Alcott’s classic “Little Women,” was awarded the honor Monday.
No Pulitzer was awarded for drama, the first time since 1997.
In her novel, Brooks, an Australian journalist with dual American citizenship, takes the character of March, a Union military chaplain, through the war while his wife and four daughters remain home in Massachusetts...
Read more courtesy the Boston Herald
More on the Poetry Winner: "Professor wins Pulitzer Prize
Mary Washington professor Claudia Emerson wins the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Date published: 4/18/2006
By KRISTIN DAVIS
She saw it on the Internet. Then the phone started ringing, and the hallway outside her office got noisy. The room filled with people--hugging, congratulating, bringing flowers. She wanted to call her mother. But first she had to talk to an Associated Press reporter about the book that had thrown her into the spotlight. And that was how the biggest news of Claudia Emerson's professional life unfolded yesterday. Emerson, an associate professor of English at the University of Mary Washington, has won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
It is one of poetry's highest distinctions, and winning it puts Emerson in the company of Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath and Gwendolyn Brooks. Emerson won for her third and latest book of poems, "Late Wife." It is her most personal work. In it, she writes of the dissolution of a 19-year marriage.
"I needed to make peace with it, to resolve it," she told The Free Lance-Star in October. "I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it was going to be a risk."
Later in the book, Emerson writes about finding new love, with a man who was widowed after a happy marriage. This section is addressed to Kent Ippolito, Emerson's husband of five years.
Emerson has taught composition and creative writing in the English, Linguistics and Speech Department at Mary
Washington since 1998. She's on sabbatical this semester but was at the university yesterday to speak to a colleague's class.
Emerson stopped by her office and flipped on the computer. She knew Pulitzer winners were being announced and was curious to see who won.
According to a news update at 3:30 p.m., she had.
Emerson knew she'd been nominated but thought her chances were slim. Her parents were hopeful, though. Her 81-year-old mother cried when Emerson called with the news.
"She thinks it's great and I should win everything," Emerson said.
She started writing poetry at 28, while managing an out-of-the-way bookstore and delivering mail part time in her hometown of Chatham, near Danville.
Nearing 30, she went to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to get a master of fine arts degree and concentrate on her craft.
It took six years to find a publisher for her first book, "Pharaoh, Pharaoh."
During the impromptu celebration in her office yesterday, Emerson was still taking in the honor.
"Oh, God! I won a Pulitzer Prize," she said, shaking her head.
A student came by and wrapped her in a hug. "As if you weren't my idol already," senior Katy Hershberger said.
Emerson is one of Mary Washington's most popular teachers, and its first Pulitzer Prize winner. Those who land a spot in her creative writing class consider themselves part of a select club.
The phone kept ringing: The New York Times. A radio show. Her mentor, Betty Adcock. People from Louisiana State University Press, which published "Late Wife" and nominated it for the Pulitzer.
Through it all, Emerson prepared a mental list of people she had to call--editors and family and friends from writing school.
She paused to reflect on what a Pulitzer might mean for her future.
Maybe she'll be under more scrutiny. Maybe she'll get invited to do more readings. Maybe the book will sell better.
"It's affirming," she said. "It's a little scary."
Podcasts of Emerson reading poems from her book are available at profcast.org.
Posted by Sumita Sheth at April 18, 2006 11:34 AM
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