Two Gulf Coast papers win Pulitzer Prizes

The Times-Picayune Editor in Chief Jim Amoss, center, and editor Terry Baquet, right, celebrate in the New Orleans newsroom after learning the paper won two Pulitzers for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. (ELIOT KAMENITZ / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE)

NEW YORK — The staffs of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of southern Mississippi captured Pulitzer Prizes for public service Monday for chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina despite life-changing damage to their own homes and workplaces.

Tears flowed rather than champagne in the Times-Picayune newsroom, which the staff had to evacuate just eight months earlier. At The Sun Herald, staff members cheered and fought back tears.

The Sun Herald won for its "valorous and comprehensive coverage ... providing a lifeline for devastated readers" and The Times-Picayune for its "heroic, multi-faceted coverage" to "serve an inundated city even after evacuation of the newspaper plant," the Pulitzer citation said.

The Washington Post won four Pulitzers, The New York Times three and The Times-Picayune and the Rocky Mountain News each won two.

In the arts categories, the fiction prize went to "March," Geraldine Brooks' novel imagining the life of the father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," and the general nonfiction prize went to Caroline Elkins for "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya."

The Times-Picayune was awarded a second Pulitzer, for breaking news, for Katrina, and The Dallas Morning News was honored "for its vivid photographs depicting the chaos and pain" of the disaster.

Like their communities, The Sun Herald and The Times-Picayune took a beating from Katrina. Their buildings were damaged, advertisers and subscribers were displaced, and circulation dropped.

The Times-Picayune evacuated about 240 employees in the back of delivery trucks as water rose around its plant.

The newsroom erupted in applause at the news of the Pulitzers, but there was no champagne. "It was a national tragedy," said Peter Kovacs, managing editor for news. "It would not be appropriate to have champagne because of the nature of the event."

At The Washington Post, Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith won the investigative reporting Pulitzer for stories on the Jack Abramoff scandal; David Finkel won for explanatory reporting on the U.S. government's attempt to bring democracy to Yemen; Dana Priest won for beat reporting for stories on secret prisons and the government's counterterrorism campaign; and Robin Givhan won for "her witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism."

Grimaldi worked at The Seattle Times in the late 1990s.

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times and the staffs of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service won for national reporting — the Times for stories on the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping, the Union-Tribune and Copley for disclosing the bribe taking that sent former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison.

List of winners:

JOURNALISM:

Public service, two prizes:

• The Sun Herald of South Mississippi

• The Times-Picayune of New Orleans

Breaking news reporting: Staff of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans

Investigative reporting: Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post

Explanatory reporting: David Finkel of The Washington Post

Beat reporting: Dana Priest of The Washington Post

National reporting, two prizes:

• James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times

• Staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service

International reporting: Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley of The New York Times

Feature writing: Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colo.

Commentary: Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times

Criticism: Robin Givhan of The Washington Post

Editorial writing: Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The (Portland) Oregonian

Editorial cartooning: Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Breaking news photography: Staff of The Dallas Morning News

Feature photography: Todd Heisler of the Rocky Mountain News

ARTS

Fiction: "March," by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

Drama: No award

History: "Polio: An American Story," by David M. Oshinsky (Oxford University Press)

Biography: "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (Alfred A. Knopf)

Poetry: "Late Wife," by Claudia Emerson (Louisiana State University Press)

General nonfiction: "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya," by Caroline Elkins (Henry Holt)

Music: Piano Concerto: 'Chiavi in Mano,' by Yehudi Wyner (Associated Music Publishers)

SPECIAL CITATIONS

• Edmund S. Morgan, honored for what Pulitzer officials described as "his creative and deeply influential body of work as an American historian that spans the last half century."

• Thelonious Monk, honored posthumously for "a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz."