(Michael M. Grynbaum’s article appeared in The New York Times, 4/18.)
The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for a series that exposed slavery and vicious abuse in the Southeast Asia fishing trade, leading to the release of 2,000 captives and broad reforms in the United States and overseas.
The series, “Seafood From Slaves,” involved a sprawling reportorial effort across several countries that discovered scores of fishermen in captivity — and sometimes locked in cages — in an industry that supplies seafood to American restaurants, pet-food brands and big retailers like Walmart. The A.P.’s reporting prompted arrests, ship seizures and action by the federal government.
One year after magazines became eligible in some Pulitzer categories, The New Yorker received two prizes: for Emily Nussbaum’s television criticism, and for “The Really Big One,” Kathryn Schulz’s ominous article about the potential for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, which won for feature writing. William Finnegan, a New Yorker staff writer, won the biography award for his memoir, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.”
In an honor that was widely predicted, the musical “Hamilton,” a hip-hop retelling of the founding fathers story, received the prize for drama. The musical’s creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, reacted joyfully on Twitter, writing: “PULITZER?!”