‘Restrained yet powerful language.’ Three Kansas writers honored by Pulitzer committee
The works of three writers from Kansas were recognized by Pulitzer Prize judges on Monday. They included one winner and two finalists: Anne Boyer, Ben Lerner and Chloé Cooper Jones.
Jones one of the few freelancers to be a finalist, graduated from Lawrence High School and attended the University of Kansas.
Anne Boyer, a Kansas City Art Institute creative writing instructor and a breast cancer survivor, won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for her 2019 book “The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care.”
The judges called the book an “elegant and unforgettable narrative about the brutality of illness and the capitalism of cancer care in America.”
Author Ben Lerner was named a finalist for the fiction award for his novel “The Topeka School.”
Judges said the book was a “brilliant and ambitious exploration of language, family and American identity as exemplified by the life of a Midwestern high school debate champion.”
Boyer was born in Topeka and grew up in Salina. Lerner is from Topeka.
Chloé Cooper Jones, originally from Tonganoxie, was a finalist in the feature writing category for her profile of Ramsey Orta, who was targeted and harassed by New York police after he filmed Eric Garner’s death. It was published in The Verge.
Judges said her work, “Fearing For His Life,” used “restrained yet powerful language and courageous reporting to show the police retribution endured by a forgotten figure in a story that horrified the nation.”
Jones was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 2009 and a doctorate degree in English in 2012.
When the philosophy professor first heard the news, she was confused. Someone tweeted congratulations to her 20 minutes before she was ready to teach an online class.
When she called her editor on the piece, Kevin Nguyen, he thought she was joking, Jones said. Once they confirmed the news, there was no time to celebrate: Jones had to teach.
As a freelancer, she said, she is constantly working to get people to say yes to her. She was one of five freelancers listed on the 2020 Pulitzer Prize list.
“There’s just so many gatekeepers,” Jones said. “For me as a freelancer, I don’t have any of that institutional support. Every time I start a new piece, it’s the process of trying to convince people that I can do it.”
Part of her inspiration in becoming a journalist, Jones said, was her stepfather, Ted Frederickson, who taught KU journalism students during his 31-year teaching career at KU.
Jones has a congenital disability, sacral agenesis, which affects the lower spine.
“I just didn’t see a lot of writers or journalists that were coming from my perspective,” Jones said. And while that did not impact how she wrote the awarded piece, she added: “I do think it leads me to think about people in a different way.”
Her first book, “Easy Beauty,” is scheduled to be published in 2021.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the hometown of Anne Boyer. She was born in Topeka and grew up in Salina.
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 5:43 PM.
