{"id":17181,"date":"2026-05-08T12:56:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=17181"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:56:03","slug":"behind-the-scenes-pulitzer-juror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2026\/05\/08\/behind-the-scenes-pulitzer-juror\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the scenes as a Pulitzer juror"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter,<\/em><\/a> delivered every Friday in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Dear Storyboard community: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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This week the Pulitzer Prize<\/a> for Feature Writing was awarded to Texas Monthly senior editor Aaron Parsley<\/a> for his harrowing and heart-wrenching first-person account<\/a> of the 2025 Guadalupe River floods in Texas, written just days after the tragedy swept away his house and plunged his family into the waters. Parsley lost his 20-month-old nephew Clay in the flood. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As Parsley wrote on Bluesky this week<\/a>: \u201cBeing recognized for a story that honors my nephew Clay and the strength of my family means the world to me. I\u2019m grateful to the Pulitzer Prizes committee, my dear friends, and incredibly talented colleagues at Texas Monthly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Former Storyboard editor and New Yorker staff writer Paige Williams chose the story for our Best of 2025 compilation<\/a>, saying the story \u201ccan only contribute to our shared understanding of how the unthinkable unfolds, and, let\u2019s hope, of how to spare others the same measure of suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With so many significant pieces published each year, how do the Pulitzers get chosen in the first place? I asked two of this year’s Pulitzer Prize jurors, Storyboard contributors Erika Hayasaki<\/a> and Minda Honey<\/a> for insight. Hayasaki, who first served as a Pulitzer juror for Feature Writing last year (when the award went to Esquire’s Mark Warren for \u201cA Death in Alabama\u201d<\/a>), said: \u201cWe are actually jurors, not judges \u2014 which means we select the finalists, which then go to the Pulitzer Board to select a winner. The winner is a surprise to us until the announcements.\u201d She added: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I can\u2019t speak specifically to what we looked for or deliberated on, but I can say that one of our jurors sent a note after thanking all of us that said: \u201cIt was like being in the world\u2019s greatest college seminar.\u201d <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

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Three of the jurors had won Pulitzers themselves, and everyone at the table brought another layer of brilliance and perceptiveness to our discussion. It did at times feel like an unparalleled craft workshop, as we dissected what makes feature stories feel immersive, closely observed, rigorously reported, or profound beyond simply the arrangement of facts. It was also invigorating to be reminded that so many excellent pieces are still being published regularly, despite all of the challenges in media.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Minda Honey added: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The invitation to serve as a Pulitzer Prize juror came at a much needed moment. This past year \u2014 like many years, as of late \u2014 was a hard year for media workers. Similar to the journalists who experienced the mass layoffs at The Washington Post, I was part of a newsroom that was dismantled,<\/a> and I’ve been a bit adrift professionally since being laid off last July. So it was an immense honor to learn that the leaders of our industry respect me and my writing enough to request that I serve as a Feature Writing juror for the most prestigious prize in Journalism. It was a timely reminder that who I am and the caliber of my writing has never been dependent on any single job or title. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

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Of all the high points of this experience, I will never forget how well taken care of I felt throughout the entire process by the Pulitzer Prize’s Joseph O. Legaspi, the leadership and warmth of our committee chair Erika, and the master class in dissecting a piece of writing I received from my fellow committee members. (And shoutout to everyone who let me believe that snow boots are business casual because there was no way I was trudging around the slushy streets of NYC in anything else!)<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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You can see the full list of Pulitzer Prize winners here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With so much great reporting and storytelling across the categories, Storyboard will bring you more from this year’s winners and finalists in the weeks and months to come. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Links of note<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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