'New York' and Vulture’s Andrea Long Chu Wins Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

She is the magazine’s second winner in five years. [vulture logo](   [New York and Vulture’s Andrea Long Chu Wins Pulitzer Prize for Criticism]( [Andrea Long Chu]( New York and Vulture readers know: [Andrea Long Chu]( has a one-of-a-kind mind. She dives as deeply as anyone possibly can into her subject’s work, interview history, and life, and she comes out the other side with big opinionated swings that you will encounter nowhere else, delivered in prose that swoops and soars like an Olympian. This afternoon, the Pulitzer committee up at Columbia University recognized what we have known for a while, awarding her the 2023 prize for criticism. The pieces for which she was recognized are listed [here]( but a few leap to mind if you need to catch up in a hurry. When reading [Hanya Yanagihara](, known for excruciatingly evocative fiction, Chu discerned that the most interesting relationship in the work was not among the characters but between the author and her characters—whom Yanagihara makes ill so she can nurse them back to health. Chu [took the opposite approach]( to the recent trend of the mixed-race Asian character in literature, exploring how an archetype can become an idea for the authors who use it, in this case considering what it means to be Asian American enough. More recently, she marked the centenary of [The Velveteen Rabbit]( with a warm appreciation, and also [reminded us all]( just how shlocky Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals can be—and how influential they are nonetheless. Part of the pleasure of reading Chu comes from her fearlessness; her pieces are often celebrated on Twitter with lines like “I would like to report a murder.” She uses a scalpel, though, not a blunt instrument: Those exquisitely crafted sentences articulate fundamental truths about the work as precisely as possible. “This is the problem with writing to wake people up: Your ideal reader is inevitably asleep,” she [writes]( of Ottessa Moshfegh’s books. And there, you see that Chu is revealing herself, too: You can start to discern how she gravitates toward authors she doesn’t fully agree with, where there might be a little friction inherent to the critical project. Out of that friction comes a review whose arrival is always an event. We are proud to publish her, and offer our congratulations. – The Editors   [Celebrate 55 years of New York]( with us — get a free limited-edition tote featuring a Milton Glaser design when you subscribe to any annual plan. [CLAIM YOUR OFFER]( [New York Magazine Tote](   More from Andrea Long Chu [Hanya’s Boys]( [The novelist tends to torture her gay male characters — but only so she can swoop in to save them.]( [Hanya's Boys](   [The Mixed Metaphor]( [Why does the half-Asian, half-white protagonist make us so anxious?]( [The Mixed Metaphor](   [Ottessa Moshfegh Is Praying for Us]( [The author has been hailed as a high priestess of filth. Really, she wants to purify her readers.]( [Ottessa Moshfegh](   [The Velveteen Rabbit Was Always More Than a Children’s Book]( [Written for her daughter, Margery Williams Bianco’s 100-year-old story is a memorial to what we all lose in exchange for adulthood.]( [Velveteen Rabbit](   [Misreading Octavia Butler]( [The slavery interpretation the author couldn’t escape.]( [Octavia Butler](   [Andrea Long Chu]( See All of Andrea Long Chu's Work for New York [SEE ALL](   [Vulture]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. View this email in your browser.]( Opt out of marketing emails [here](. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on e-mail newsletters please contact AdOps@nymag.com [unsubscribe](param=daily) | [privacy notice]( Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.