Before we go into the Top 5 Pulitzer Prize Winners list, we must know that the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in journalism, arts, and letters was established by Joseph Pulitzer in 1917. Pulitzer was a publisher himself of two newspapers – one in St. Louis and another in New York City. There are many categories to the prize, including journalism, fiction, non-fiction, photography, and also for editorial cartoons/comics. There is a Pulitzer for music, which musicians like Wynton Marsalis and Kendrick Lamar have won.
Top 5 Pulitzer Prize Winners Everyone Should Follow
This is by no means an exhaustive Top 5 Pulitzer Prize Winners list, as you may have your own favorite authors, journalists, and photographers. However, here are some achievers in a few of these categories who have put out some very influential and captivating work.
WA Swanberg (William Andrew Swanberg)
Swanberg was a biographer and most famously wrote the biography of William Randolph Hearst, entitled Citizen Hearst. Hearst was a renowned publisher and the founder of Hearst Communications. Although Swanberg did not win the Pulitzer Prize for that particular biography, he went on to win Pulitzers for his biographical work on Henry Luce and Norman Thomas. Therefore, he deserves to be on the Top 5 Pulitzer Prize Winners list.
Anthony Doerr
Doerr is a fairly recent recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His beautifully written 2017 novel, All the Light We Cannot See, attests to his extraordinary ability to mold the written word. The book garnered multiple awards, and it was made into a Netflix miniseries in 2023. Doerr has other novels out and continues to write to this very day.
Nigel Poor
Ms. Poor is a photographer and a Professor of Photography at CalState University in Sacramento. In 2011, she started working with San Quentin State Prison in Northern California as a photography teacher. This led to the birth of Ear Hustle, a podcast that examines prison life and life after incarceration. The Ear Hustle podcast, season four, won the Pulitzer in 2020.
Clarence Williams
Moving down the coast of California, we find Clarence Williams. Williams is an American photojournalist who was chronicling the lives of children of addicts living in Los Angeles in the late 90s. His gritty and often heartbreaking photos earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Today, he still lives in Southern California and is an event and portrait photographer.
Herblock
Herbert L. Block, or shortened to Herblock, was a political satire cartoonist. The Chicago-born illustrator was hired at the Chicago Daily News, then moved to Cleveland, and then onto the Washington Post in the 1940s, where he spent 55 years as a political cartoonist and chief editorial cartoonist. His work was syndicated to newspapers all around the world. Definitely a part of the Top 5 Pulitzer Prize Winners list.
A Few Final Words
These Top 5 Pulitzer Prize winners won for their outstanding achievements. Whether it’s podcasting, photography, cartooning, writing fiction, or creating a biography, these men and women here show excellence in their craft. There are many prizewinners out there with impressive work. These five Pulitzer Prize winners listed are worth taking a second, or perhaps a third, look at, as they all have a moving story to tell.
