L.A. Times Rakes In Five Pulitzers

The Los Angeles Times won five Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including for breaking news reporting for its coverage of the massive wildfires that ravaged Southern California last fall. The New York Times won the public service award for the work of David Barstow and Lowell Bergman examining death and injury among American workers.

The Los Angeles Times also won the Pulitzer in national reporting for its examination of the tactics that have made Wal-Mart the largest company in the world.

The prize for investigative reporting was awarded to Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr of The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, for their series on atrocities by Tiger Force, an elite U.S. Army platoon, during the Vietnam War.

The explanatory reporting award went to Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton of The Wall Street Journal for their groundbreaking examination of aneurysms, an often overlooked medical condition that kills thousands of Americans each year.

The Journal won a second award for Daniel Golden for beat reporting, for his meticulously documented stories on admission preferences given to the children of alumni and donors at American universities.

The prize for international reporting went to Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post, for what board called his "extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril," the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended.

The commentary award went to Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald for his fresh, vibrant columns that spoke, with both passion and compassion, to ordinary people on often divisive issues.

The prize for criticism went to Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times for his one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural observations.

The Pulitzer for editorial writing to William Stall of the Los Angeles Times for his incisive editorials that analyzed California's troubled state government, prescribed remedies and served as a model for addressing complex state issues.

The editorial cartooning prize went to Matt Davies of The Journal News, White Plains, New York, for his piercing cartoons on an array of topics, drawn with a fresh, original style.

The photo award in breaking news went to David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer of The Dallas Morning News for their eloquent photographs depicting both the violence and poignancy of the war with Iraq.

The prize for feature photography went to Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times for her behind-the-scenes look at the effects of civil war in Liberia, with special attention to innocent citizens caught in the conflict.

The board made no award in the feature writing category.

Each prize is worth $10,000, except for public service, which is recognized with a gold medal.

The awards are given by Columbia University on the recommendation of the 18-member Pulitzer board, which considers nominations from jurors in each category.

In the arts, the Pulitzer for fiction was awarded Monday to Edward P. Jones for "The Known World," his historical novel about a black slave owner.

Jones, who spent 10 years between books, had previously won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his novel. It was the 53-year-old author's first book since "Lost in the City," his 1993 collection of short stories about life in Washington.

Jones was a proofreader for the trade publication Tax Notes before he launched a writing career.

The Pulitzer for drama went to Doug Wright for "I Am My Own Wife," the tale of a real-life German transvestite who survived both the Nazis and the Communists.

The Pulitzer Prize for biography was captured by William Taubman for "Khrushchev: The Man and His Era." In history, the winner was Steven Hahn for "A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South From Slavery to the Great Migration."

The award for general nonfiction went to Anne Applebaum for "Gulag: A History." The poetry winner was Franz Wright for "Walking to Martha's Vineyard."

The award for music went to "Tempest Fantasy" by Paul Moravec.