A squeaky cart stands in a corner, stuffed with books and labeled “THE MOBILE LIBRARY.” A man reaches through the bars of his prison cell to claim his next read. A prison library assistant goes home to record it all.
The 2024 Pulitzer for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary went to Medar de la Cruz for “The Diary of a Rikers Island Library Worker” in The New Yorker, offering a rare glimpse of life inside the jail system through de la Cruz’ artistic eye.
De la Cruz, a comics artist also who works in New York City jails as a library assistant for the Brooklyn Public Library, takes us through snippets of his work serving detained New Yorkers and recognizing their humanity in an inhumane setting.
It’s not a cohesive narrative driven by a plot like a traditional comic, but rather snapshots of a life not usually permitted to be documented. There are few if any words in the drawings, only occasional speech bubbles of a conversation de la Cruz recalls, or the ironic “MOBILE LIBRARY” label.
WATCH: Breaking down the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes with Poynter
De la Cruz uses black and white brushstrokes throughout his drawings, ink laying heavy in some corners of the notorious jail and lighter strokes cross-hatching faces and delicate details into the picture.
“Phones and cameras aren’t allowed on Rikers, but I’m an illustrator,” de la Cruz wrote in the piece. “Sometimes I saw things that I felt compelled to draw from memory later.”
The drawings in de la Cruz’s piece sting with that drawn-from-memory ache. One fills the frame with a cell door for a man in protective custody, with a only hint of his face peeking out from a narrow slot. In a speech bubble, he asks de la Cruz: “Do you got any self-help books?”
The lack of traditional access to Rikers makes this topic a natural fit for an illustrated reporting, but the category can be mixed.
This year’s finalists include mostly wordless political editorial cartoons, an illustrated scroll-through journey (also from The New Yorker) from a mother reflecting on her toddler learning human language compared to ChatGPT, and The Washington Post’s comic on Filipinos exhibited at the 1904 World’s Fair. Last year’s winner was a clever breakdown of Jeff Bezos’ wealth, using absurd comparisons to properly visualize the Amazon executive chairman’s unfathomable net worth.
Though there may not be a standard-bearer for the relatively young category, created in 2022 to succeed the Editorial Cartooning category, the diverse range of storytelling creates a big opportunity for non-traditional visual journalists to win a Pulitzer. Both de la Cruz and last year’s winner, Mona Chalabi, were illustrators contributing a one-off piece and not staff employees.
More from Poynter on the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes:
- Lookout Santa Cruz, digital site with a backstory, wins Pulitzer for breaking news
- Small newsrooms won big in the 2024 Pulitzers
- The Invisible Institute won two Pulitzers this year. What is it?
- A sign of the times as Pulitzer Prizes are announced
- Pulitzers recognize coverage of Israel-Hamas war, honor journalists working in Gaza
- Among the Pulitzer Prize winners, where are the metros?
- Reuters wins Pulitzer for Israel-Gaza photography
- Associated Press wins Pulitzer for documenting arduous migration journeys
- Here are the winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes
- From the archives: Behind the Pulitzers: A look into the inner workings of journalism’s Super Bowl
- From the archives: How do you pronounce Pulitzer?
