The Pulitzer Prize Is Getting More Diverse. Dana Canedy Is One Reason Why
When scrolling through this year’s list of Pulitzer Prize recipients, one thing immediately stands out: the sheer number of Black winners. There is The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead’s devastating fictional account of the true story about life at the Dozier reform school, which won for fiction. A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s semi-autobiographical musical about an aspiring playwright trying to write a musical about an aspiring playwright, secured the win for drama. The Tradition, Jericho Brown’s heartfelt collection, won the prize for poetry, while The Central Park Five, Anthony Davis’s spellbinding opera about its titular group of wrongfully convicted Black and Latinx boys, took home the prize for music. Add to that wins for Nikole Hannah-Jones, who took home the commentary prize for her contributions to The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” as well as a special award for the late investigative journalist and Civil Rights leader Ida B. Wells, and it’s clear that Black art was finally getting its due.
It’s something to be proud of for Dana Canedy, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize since August 2017. As the first woman, first person of color, and youngest person to ever hold the position, the former New York Times editor has spent the past three years painstakingly working to diversify this prestigious organization in all facets. And while her contributions have been apparent from the very beginning—it was after she took the role that Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. took home the 2018 Pulitzer for Music, after all—nothing has felt quite like the 2020 results.
Several days after the winners were announced, Vogue hopped on the phone with Canedy to talk about these wins, what she thinks inspired the current uptick in stories about the mistreatment of Black bodies, and why she won’t rest until matters of diversity are no longer sensational.
During your first year presiding over the Pulitzers, Kendrick Lamar won, which felt unprecedented. What led to that?
Funny story. Every year now, people say, “What are you going to do next year?” And after we wrap up, I’m like, Oh crap, I have to try to top this? So I don’t know. I might have to bring in a circus next year! But as it relates to the Kendrick Lamar prize or the special awards for Aretha Franklin and Miss Ida B. Wells, I think it’s more an indication of the board than of me. The board was open, ready, willing, and eager to make some historical course-corrections and embrace new, different forms of art.
I came in with a board that was aligned with my vision, and together, we’ve been able to accomplish things I was hopeful would happen but was never certain could. I think what impacted what you saw this year was having a diverse board, having a woman of color as the administrator, and having a diverse jury pool. That combination just brings about discussion and debate about what other things we should be considering or looking at. It feels very organic.
A Strange Loop is excellent, but it’s also a very deliberately challenging work. Do you think anything had to change for provocative art to be recognized in spaces like this?
Across categories, the Pulitzers have long been awarding work that’s considered provocative or controversial. If anything, this win is a reflection that [we’re seeing art] that speaks to themes that maybe weren’t as written about before or that you didn’t see on stage. Coupled with the openness of a board that really wants to embrace all kinds of storytelling, [hopefully] work like that will continue to rise. And it should because, by the way, it happened to be the best bit of drama we saw this year.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t say two things. One is that we do not lower our standards. Every year, I have phone calls with each jury panel before they start their deliberations and I give them instructions. One of the things that I say is, “The number one thing that we are looking for, and what we will never lower the bar on, is the excellence of the work.” That’s it. You have to meet that first before any sort of diversity becomes a factor. Two, as wonderful as the diversity we’re seeing is and how much attention it’s getting, I actually will not consider us successful until it’s no longer a story. Only when it becomes “Of course there was a diverse slate of winners” will I consider it a success. If folks still consider the diversity of this year’s winners] to be extraordinary, it simply means that we have more work to do.
Given how many prizes went to Black artists—and, in the case of A Strange Loop and The Tradition, to queer Black artists—would you say there’s been an uptick in mainstream interest in these kinds of stories?
I’m actually not sure, to be honest. For me, they were always mainstream. There has always been extraordinary work like this. I just think we’re much more open now than we’ve ever been to recognizing it. I didn’t even realize until you said it that most of the key prizes in Arts & Letters had gone to African-Americans. I knew we had a diverse group but I never even realized that. The fact that I didn’t recognize that is how it should be. It just happened organically.
Even some of the non-Black winners won for work that has a specific resonance for Black communities—like W. Caleb McDaniel, who won for his book about former enslaved woman Henrietta Wood. Then, taking into account Nikole Hannah-Jones’ win for her work on the “1619 Project,” do you think there’s a reason we’re seeing so much work that reexamines our society’s historical mistreatment of Black bodies?
I think it’s somewhat obvious if you look at the trend of Black brutality from law enforcement. If you think about that and the divisiveness in this country right now along racial lines fueled by the Trump administration, we’re at a particularly sensitive moment in our history. We’re at a turning point and that always prompts reflection. We’re just one administration out from having the first African-American president in the White House. All of those things have people reflecting on where we’ve been, where we’re going, and whether we’re in, as I would argue, a two-steps-forward-one-step-back process. It’s just a natural time of reflection.
Looking forward to the future, what do you hope to see?
First of all, this year cannot be an anomaly. My main goal is to make sure that it isn’t, and frankly, the board wouldn’t have it any other way. My number one priority is to make sure that we continue to build on the success of this year.
BY MICHAEL CUBY May 9, 2020 for Vogue
