The 2023 Pulitzer Prize Awards Ceremony

Continuing a hallowed tradition at Columbia University, the 2023 class of Pulitzer Prize winners gathered with family, friends, colleagues and members of the Pulitzer Board at Low Library on October 19 for a dinner ceremony celebrating their awards. University President Minouche Shafik, 2022-24 Pulitzer Board Co-Chairs Neil Brown & Tommie Shelby and Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller offered remarks, while Miller and President Emeritus Lee Bollinger (who participated in the selection of this year’s winners in May before stepping down at the end of the 2022-23 academic year) presented the awards. 

Immediately preceding the awards presentation, Bollinger also received a customary commemorative scroll from the Board recognizing his decades of service, marking the longest tenure of a Board member since Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. stepped down in 1987 by virtue of his 21-year presidency. (The tradition of the scroll, granted to Board members at the end of their service, dates back more than forty years, although its origins remain nebulous.) After accepting the scroll, Bollinger characterized his Board service as "the gift of a lifetime"

Much as in other recent ceremonies, the speakers’ remarks touched upon some of the key sociocultural leitmotifs of the early 21st century, including renewed geopolitical instability in Latin America, Eurasia and the Middle East (and the attendant fact-checking challenges that emerge); increasingly sempiternal economic challenges in the publishing/media sphere; the intertwined specters of revanchist authoritarianism and resurgent anomie; and concomitant threats to press freedom, as exemplified by Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and the heinous September 2022 murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German (both noted by Miller). 

In a stirring appeal that touched upon recent events in the Middle East and Ukraine, Brown underscored the enduring resonance of the Pulitzers’ ecumenical mission in this fractious milieu. "Each year, the award of the Pulitzer Prizes is an important moment to stand with those who confront arrogance and explore uncomfortable truths" he said, adding that the Pulitzer Board has voted to establish a new subcommittee on special awards and citations (with $100,000 in funding) that will "support the well-being and safety of those who are working under dangerous threat"

A full list of winners is available here, while a gallery of photos (all credited to Diane Bondareff/The Pulitzer Prizes) from the ceremony and reception may be found below. Acceptance photos will be accessible on each relevant winner page in the next few days.