Watch NewsHour Interviews With 2012 Pulitzer Winners

JOURNALISM -- April 16, 2012 at 6:47 PM EDT

Watch NewsHour Interviews With 2012 Pulitzer Winners

Poet Tracy Smith read her winning poem "Life on Mars" and reflected on her work on the NewsHour on May 16.

Citing "distinguished" prose and reporting, the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners for journalism, letters, drama and music were announced Monday by Columbia University.

Poet Tracy Smith won the 2012 Pulitzer for poetry. Speaking to the NewHour in May, Smith said:

For me, a poem is an opportunity to kind of interrogate myself a little bit. See in what ways I'm complicated by situations like that, or even -- I don't know -- like somehow connected to in ways that might be uncomfortable.

NewsHour also pulled from a few of the journalism Pulitzer winners' reports -- highlighting reporters' exemplary coverage and providing viewers with some additional on-the-ground perspective.

The Pulitzer board recognized the New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman in the international reporting category for "his vivid reports" in "neglected" Somalia.

Our latest discussion with Gettleman was from July 7, 2010.

For investigative reporting, the Pulitzer board took notice of an Associated Press team including Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley, for their investigation into the New York Police Department's "clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities."

Apuzzo spoke to NewsHour on Feb. 28 in "'Mosque Crawlers,' 'Rakers' Monitoring U.S. Muslims for NYPD."

Sara Ganim and members of the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News staff were awarded the local reporting Pulitzer for "courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky."

Ganim described the 23-page indictment against Sandusky as "pretty sickening" in a discussion with Margaret Warner from Nov. 7.

Our friends at California Watch in Berkeley, Calif., also received recognition from the Pulitzer board in the local reporting category as finalists for their multimedia storytelling and "rigorous probe of deficient earthquake protection in the construction of public schools."

Anna Werner's report, jointly produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting's California Watch and KQED, aired on the April 11, 2011, broadcast.

On Monday's NewsHour, watch a discussion with reporter Kristen Graham of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Graham was part of the team of reporters who won the public service Pulitzer for investigating the pervasive violence in the city's schools.

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