Merwin, Brands Get Pulitzer Nods

We spent last week on a lovely stay-cay, basically plugging our fingers in our ears for a full 7 days, which means we missed the big news that poet W.S. Merwin won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press). The announcement came last Monday, just a couple of days after Merwin wowed audiences first at a reading presented by UT's Michener Center for Writers, then at the annual Poetry at Round Top Festival in Round Top, Texas. Round Top director Jack Brannon (who was recently featured in our AIPF preview) passed along word, as well as a couple shots of the venerable poet.

Congrats also go to local author H.W. Brands, whose terrific book Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Doubleday) was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer for Biography or Autobiography (he was previously nominated for Ben Franklin bio The First American). Brands is shockingly prolific, so we've no doubt he'll get another crack at the gold.