On Monday, the 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced at Columbia University, which hands out the prestigious awards in subjects of journalism, literature, and music. The biggest winner, by far, was The Washington Post, which racked up six of the honors, compared to the two bestowed upon The New York Times. “This is actually a boost to remind people that we can produce this kind of journalism at any time,” said Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., at a time when print journalism is frequently encountering revenue problems in an increasingly digital age. “We're going to have a large enough newsroom to continue to produce this kind of quality journalism,” Downie continued.

Many of the journalism recipients, regardless of their publications, received the prizes because of their exceptional reporting on scandals that rocked the nation. Dana Priest, Anne Hull, and Michelle du Cille of the The Washington Post received the esteemed Public Service award for their exposure of the maltreatment of patients at Walter Reed Hospital, the nation’s preeminent hospital for veterans. Also praised for their journalism in scandalous matters were Walter Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of The New York Times for their Investigative Reporting on America’s importation of Chinese products containing toxic materials.

For Breaking News Photography, the prize went to Andrees Latif for his photo of a Japanese videographer who was sprawled on the ground because of fatal injuries sustained after being shot by a soldier in Myanmar who was chasing away a group of demonstrators.

Not all awards, though, centered on such controversial subjects. The Pulitzer board awarded Junot Diaz prize in Fiction for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which tells the story of Oscar’s troubled life as an overweight Dominican looking for love. For Poetry, the award went to Robert Hass for Time and Poetry, with poems covering topics like memory, art, and war.

In an unexpected move, the Pulitzer board awarded Bob Dylan a Special Citation “for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Although many jazz artists have been honored in the past, this is the first time a rock musician has been given the honor. For a complete listing of the winners visit.

For a complete listing of the winners visit http://www.pulitzer.org/.

-Jonathan Mason