Earlier today, the winners of the 2012 Pulitzer Prizes were announced in Pulitzer Hall (the building formerly known as Journalism).

The late Columbia professor Manning Marable won the History prize for his biography of Malcolm X, the same prize that Columbia professor Eric Foner won last year. As expected, the AP reporters who exposed the NYPD’s possibly illegal surveillance of Muslim communities—including our own Muslim Students Association—tied for the Investigative Reporting Prize. A young alumnus, Eli Sanders (CC ’99) snagged an award in the journalism category for his feature writing in The Stranger. American literature and editorial writing got snubbed when the judging committee chose to award No Prize rather than choose from any of the nominees in either category. The Huffington Post, meanwhile, became the first blog in history to win a Pulitzer Prize.

JOURNALISM

Public Service – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Breaking News Reporting – The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News Staff

Investigative Reporting – Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the Associated Press and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times

Explanatory Reporting – David Kocieniewski of The New York Times

Local Reporting – Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News Staff, Harrisburg, Penn

National Reporting – David Wood of The Huffington Post

International Reporting – Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times

Feature Writing – Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle (Wash.) weekly

Commentary – Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

Criticism -Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe

Editorial Writing – No award

Editorial Cartooning – Matt Wuerker of POLITICO

Breaking News Photography – Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse

Feature Photography – Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post

LETTERS, DRAMA and MUSIC

Fiction – No award

Drama – “Water by the Spoonful” by Quiara Alegría Hudes

History – “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” by the late Manning Marable (Viking)

Biography – “George F. Kennan: An American Life,” by John Lewis Gaddis (The Penguin Press)

Poetry – “Life on Mars” by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press)

General Nonfiction – “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern,” by Stephen Greenblatt (W.W. Norton and Company)

Music – “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” by Kevin Puts (Aperto Press)