By:
July 31, 2002

Today, a year to the day after Blair Kamin received the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, he will speak at his alma mater, Ahmerst College in Massachusetts. It was there that a course in gothic architecture spurred his lifelong interest.


He’s come full circle.


“It’s an amazing thing,” he says of winning the coveted prize. “It does sort of change your life.”


Winning the Pulitzer in 1999 literally opened doors, says Kamin, the architecture critic for The Chicago Tribune.


Kamin, 42, tells a delightful story of being asked to speak to an arts group after receiving the journalism prize. He agreed to lecture but not before using his newfound status to persuade the group to hold the lecture inside a Frank Lloyd Wright building he had wanted to visit for many years.


“That was literally an instance where it opened doors,” he quips.


After a year, you can still hear the excitement in Kamin’s voice as he reminisces about receiving the award and what it has meant to his career. He currently is writing a book on the Chicago Tribune Tower, a neo-gothic skyscraper, and has a book deal with the University of Chicago Press to publish a collection of his columns.


“I just consider myself extremely lucky,” Kamin says.


It makes you think again about why you do what you do, says Richard Read, senior writer for international affairs at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore. Read, who won in 1999 for explanatory writing recalls his Pulitzer experience as “a year of just insanity.”


“It’s hard to even describe,” he says. “You just get overwhelmed with phone calls and emails and letters, everyone you ever knew. You have all these opportunities coming at you. And you’re trying to figure out what you want to do with your life.”


Annie Wells, a Los Angeles Times photographer, agrees.


“It was very intense,” she says.


Wells, who was at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., when she won for spot news photography in 1997, credits the prize for her move to The Los Angeles Times. Now, in addition to her role as photographer, Wells serves as the photo editor for the Times’ Latino initiative, which covers issues of interest in Southern California’s Latino community.


“It’s the kind of work that I really wanted to do and that I wouldn’t have been able to do at a smaller paper,” she says.


Although she is grateful for the career opportunities that accompanied her Pulitzer, Wells says she tries not to let the attention go to her head and advises this year’s winners to do the same.


“It was one picture in my career and as they say, you’re only as good as your last picture,” she says.


Jack Reed, who shared his 1985 Pulitzer with St. Petersburg Times’ colleague Lucy Morgan for their investigative work on a county sheriff, says he thinks journalists focus too much on prizes as a mark of success.


“It takes as much good luck to win as it does talent,” he says. “It’s obviously a great honor to win a Pulitzer, but some of the best reporters never win big prizes and some of the mediocre ones do. So if you win one, celebrate it and then get on with your career.”


Although Reed’s win resulted in several job offers, he says the prize had little effect on his career.


“I won it with the Times and I stayed with the Times,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to leave, so I don’t know what it would’ve gotten me in the marketplace.”


In the end, it is all about producing good journalism, says Byron Acohido of The Seattle Times. Acohido’s exhaustive investigation of rudder control problems on Boeing 737s won him the Pulitzer for beat reporting in 1997.


A former business reporter, Acohido is now part of the paper’s investigative team. Since his win, he estimates that he has spoken at more than 40 functions over the past three years. Like Reed, Acohido chose to stay put despite a number of job offers.


“Don’t get caught up in the accolade and the competition,” he advises. “That’s not what we do or why we do it. I think most of the people who are lucky enough to win a Pulitzer know that it is because they are doing good journalism. Don’t lose sight of the good journalism.”


— Rochelle Lewis Lavin, Poynter.org News Editor, contributed to this report.

Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves truth and democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
Donate

More News

Back to News