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The 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry
For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Failure, by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)

Richard Oppel and Philip Schultz

Richard Oppel, Pulitzer Board co-chair (left), presents a 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry to Philip Schultz.

Winning Work

Failure

By

Philip Schultz

A driven immigrant father, an old poet, Isaac Babel in the author's dreams — Philip Schultz gives voice to failures in poems that are direct and wry. He evokes other lives, too — family, beaches, dogs, the pleasures of marriage, New York City in the 1970s, "when nobody got up before noon, wore a suit/or joined anything" — and a mind struggling with revolutions both interior and exterior. Failure is a superb new collection from one of America's great poets.

(from the book jacket)

 

Biography

Philip Schultz is the author of five collections of poetry, including the National Book Award nominee Like Wings, as well as Living in the Past (2004), and The Holy Worm of Praise (2002).

A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he is also the founder of the Writers Studio in New York.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Poetry in 2008:

Ellen Bryant Voigt

The Jury

Claudia Emerson(Chair )*

professor of English, Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry, department of English, linguistics and speech

Wesley McNair

poet

Natasha Trethewey*

associate professor of English, Creative Writing Program

Winners in Poetry

See All Poetry

2008 Prize Winners

Public Service

The Washington Post

in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.
Local Reporting

David Umhoefer

For his stories on the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees, prompting change and possible prosecution of key figures.
Music

David Lang

Co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and The Perth Theater and Concert Hall, and premiered October 25, 2007 in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City (G. Schirmer, Inc.).
Breaking News Reporting

Staff

For its exceptional, multi-faceted coverage of the deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, telling the developing story in print and online.
See All 2008 Winners