Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize in fiction, announced Monday, has been awarded to Adam Johnson for his book set in North Korea, "The Orphan Master's Son. " The committee described the book as "an exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart. " Johnson teaches at Stanford; "The Orphan Master's Son" is his third book. Sharon Olds won the poetry award for her collection "Stag's Leap," cited as "a stunningly poignant sequence of poems that tells the story of a divorce, embracing strands of love, sex, sorrow, memory and new freedom.

Vincent G. Dowling Actor, director gave Tom Hanks early break Actor and director Vincent G. Dowling, 83, who left behind a long career with Ireland's national theater to run a Shakespeare festival in Cleveland where he gave a young Tom Hanks an early break as an actor, died May 10 at a Boston hospital. The cause was complications from surgery, said his wife, Olwen. At 16, Dowling left school in his native Dublin to become an actor and in 1953 joined the Abbey Theatre, Ireland's national theater company.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism Monday for its investigation of off-duty police officers who endangered the lives of citizens by speeding. The newspaper, owned by Tribune Co., started its investigation after an off-duty Miami police officer was pulled over by a Florida state trooper for driving 120 mph in fall 2011. The resulting three-part series, "Above the Law," found that accidents caused by officers driving at high speeds - in many cases when off duty - caused at least 320 crashes since 2004, killing or maiming 21 people.

Bryan Cranston is going from playing a meth dealer on AMC's "Breaking Bad" to playing President Lyndon B. Johnson in a new stage production of a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan. "All The Way" will open the new season at American Repertory Theater in Massachusetts, with performances scheduled to begin Sept. 13. The company said that the play dramatizes Johnson's first year in the Oval Office as he deals with the conflict in Vietnam and civil-rights unrest at home.

Composer Caroline Shaw has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for music for her a cappella composition "Partita for 8 Voices. " The two finalists in the category this year were Aaron Jay Kernis for "Pieces of Winter Sky" and Wadada Leo Smith for "Ten Freedom Summers. " "Partita for 8 Voices" was released in October by New Amsterdam Records, featuring the vocal group Roomful of Teeth. On her website, Shaw states that the 26-minute piece was inspired by Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing 305" and that it was written for Roomful of Teeth.

"Disgraced," Ayad Akhtar's play about a corporate lawyer who has hidden his Pakistani Muslim heritage, has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama. The two finalists were "4000" by Amy Herzog and "Rapture, Blister, Burn,” by Gina Gionfriddo.  This year's drama jury was led by Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks and included playwright Donald Margulies, Princeton University professor Jill Dolan, critic John Fleming and critic Alexis Soloski.  "Disgraced" was produced last year by Lincoln Center Theater in New York, with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" veteran Aasif Mandvi in the lead role. The play had its world premiere in January 2012 at Chicago's American Theater Company.  FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview The plot follows Amir Kapoor, a lawyer, and his artist wife, Emily, during the course of a dinner party in which buried feelings are revealed.

JOURNALISM Public Service: The New York Times for "A Nation Challenged," a daily stand-alone section on terrorism and the war in Afghanistan. Breaking News Reporting: The Wall Street Journal staff for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks under extremely difficult circumstances; its newsroom near the trade center was evacuated.

In reference to Mike Downey's column (Jan. 4), specifically to his derogation of the Cleveland Browns, I would like to suggest 10 ways that Mr. Downey could possibly obtain a Pulitzer Prize: 1. By gunpoint. 2. In his wildest dreams. 3. By changing his name to Mother Teresa. 4. If the prize is ever awarded by National Lampoon. 5. By theft. 6. If the prize is ever awarded by lottery. 7. If they added a category for mediocrity. 8. If his family is appointed to the awards committee.

Lawrence A. Cremin, 64, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who spent 23 years writing a definitive trilogy on American public education. He won a Pulitzer Prize for history in 1981 for "American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876," the second volume of his three-volume history of U.S. schools. His final volume, "American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876-1980," was published in 1988.

The 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to a New York Times reporter accused of deliberately ignoring the forced famine in Ukraine to maintain his access to Josef Stalin will not be revoked, the awards board said. "The board determined that there was not clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception, the relevant standard in this case," said a statement from the Pulitzer Prize Board. A Pulitzer subcommittee began a review of the late Walter Duranty's work in April.

Composer Caroline Shaw has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for music for her a cappella composition "Partita for 8 Voices. " The two finalists in the category this year were Aaron Jay Kernis for "Pieces of Winter Sky" and Wadada Leo Smith for "Ten Freedom Summers. " "Partita for 8 Voices" was released in October by New Amsterdam Records, featuring the vocal group Roomful of Teeth. On her website, Shaw states that the 26-minute piece was inspired by Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing 305" and that it was written for Roomful of Teeth.

The Pulitzer Prize in fiction, announced Monday, has been awarded to Adam Johnson for his book set in North Korea, "The Orphan Master's Son. " The committee described the book as "an exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart. " Johnson teaches at Stanford; "The Orphan Master's Son" is his third book. Sharon Olds won the poetry award for her collection "Stag's Leap," cited as "a stunningly poignant sequence of poems that tells the story of a divorce, embracing strands of love, sex, sorrow, memory and new freedom.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism Monday for its investigation of off-duty police officers who endangered the lives of citizens by speeding. The newspaper, owned by Tribune Co., started its investigation after an off-duty Miami police officer was pulled over by a Florida state trooper for driving 120 mph in fall 2011. The resulting three-part series, "Above the Law," found that accidents caused by officers driving at high speeds - in many cases when off duty - caused at least 320 crashes since 2004, killing or maiming 21 people.

"Disgraced," Ayad Akhtar's play about a corporate lawyer who has hidden his Pakistani Muslim heritage, has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama. The two finalists were "4000" by Amy Herzog and "Rapture, Blister, Burn,” by Gina Gionfriddo.  This year's drama jury was led by Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks and included playwright Donald Margulies, Princeton University professor Jill Dolan, critic John Fleming and critic Alexis Soloski.  "Disgraced" was produced last year by Lincoln Center Theater in New York, with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" veteran Aasif Mandvi in the lead role. The play had its world premiere in January 2012 at Chicago's American Theater Company.  FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview The plot follows Amir Kapoor, a lawyer, and his artist wife, Emily, during the course of a dinner party in which buried feelings are revealed.

Jonathan is an LA Times restaurant critic and columnist. He has previously written for L.A. Weekly, and Los Angeles, Gourmet and California magazines. Jonathan has won seven James Beard Awards for his reviews and in 2007 was the first food writer to win a Pulitzer Prize.

It's hard to sum up one man's achievements in any article or post. It's even harder if that man is Roger Ebert, who in no particular order was critic, TV personality, social-media guru, blogger, scholar, screenwriter and advocate. Still, there are some very quantifiable ways that Ebert, who died Thursday at age 70, changed film and film journalism. That's true in very noticeable realms -- reviewing and supporting movies, and adding a remarkable voice to the criticism canon -- but in more subtle ones as well.

David Laventhol, president of Times Mirror Co., has been elected chairman of the 17-member Pulitzer Prize Board, Michael I. Sovern, president of Columbia University, announced. Laventhol succeeds Roger Wilkins, who will remain a board member, for the one-year term. Additionally, Sissela Bok, an associate professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, has been elected to the board, succeeding University of Chicago President Hanna Gray, who served for eight years.

Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic whose gladiatorial "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" assessments turned film reviewing into a television sport and whose passion for independent film helped introduce a new generation of filmmakers to moviegoers, has died. He was 70. Ebert, who had battled cancer in recent years, died Thursday in Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, where he had been film critic for 46 years. He had undergone several surgeries to remove cancerous tumors from his thyroid and salivary glands, ultimately losing his jaw and speaking voice to the disease.

Mark Saylor, a former Los Angeles Times editor who oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles on corruption in the entertainment industry, died Friday of cancer at his Pasadena home, his wife said. He was 58. Saylor, who was also a nationally ranked chess master, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer last spring, said his wife, Nora Zamichow, a former Times staff writer. In 1998, as entertainment editor for The Times' business section, Saylor worked with reporters Chuck Philips and Michael A. Hiltzik on three major projects over one year: fundraising by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences that netted only pennies for its charity; a resurgence of radio station "payola," or illicit payoffs, for airplay of new recordings; and the preponderance of untested luxury detox programs for wealthy celebrities.