NEW YORK — This year’s Pulitzer Prize winners in the arts include an unconventional World War I story and a theatrical exploration of women’s liberation movements from decades past, officials announced Monday.
Daniel Kraus claimed the fiction award for “Angel Down,” an innovative novel about World War I written entirely as one continuous sentence. The drama prize was awarded to Bess Wohl for “Liberation,” which examines the feminist consciousness-raising circles of the 1970s.
Monday’s announcement also recognized several works exploring American history. The history prize went to Jill Lepore for “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution,” while Amanda Vaill earned the biography award for “Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution.” Yiyun Li received recognition in the memoir category for “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” her raw examination of losing two sons to suicide. The general nonfiction prize was awarded to Brian Goldstone for “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.”
In other categories, Juliana Spahr’s “Ars Poeticas” won the poetry prize, and Gabriela Lena Frank received the music award for “Picaflor: A Future Myth,” a symphonic piece drawing inspiration from Andean folklore and California’s wildfire crisis.
Kraus, 50, has built a varied career spanning fantasy, horror and young adult literature, including partnerships with directors George Romero and Guillermo del Toro. Prize officials described “Angel Down” as “a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism, and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.”
Wohl’s theatrical work brings together feminists from various backgrounds as they confront issues including sexism, internalized prejudices, domestic violence and traditional gender expectations. The production moves between different time periods, and includes a scene where six performers appear nude at the start of the second act. The recognition comes just one day before Tony Award nominations are revealed, with “Liberation” anticipated to receive a nod for best new play.
