Who Are the Filipinas on the 2024 Pulitzer Finalists List?
Who Are the Filipinas on the 2024 Pulitzer Finalists List?
(SPOT.ph) Three Filipina creatives make it to the list of finalists for the prestigious 2024 Pulitzer Prize. Ren Galeno, a visual artist from Davao City, and Nicole Dungca, a US-based journalist, were nominated alongside journalist Claire Healy for their collaborative work Searching For Maura in the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category. Meanwhile, Reyes is a finalist for Feature Photography, commended for her work documenting youth in Africa.
The story, first published in The Washington Post, talks of injustice in the form of a real person. Maura was an 18-year-old Filipina who was taken to Saint Louis, Missouri, for the World’s Fair in 1904 and whose life becomes the subject of the team’s story. According to the Pulitzer Prize’s website, the piece was nominated for its “masterful and sensitive use of the comic form.”
Meet the Filipina creatives among the 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalists
Who is Ren Galeno?
Galeno, the Davaoeña visual artist behind the masterful art, graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a bachelor’s degree in painting. She currently works in comics and illustration.
Earlier this year, the comic artist shared with Manila Bulletin how she got in on the collaborative project. It turns out that an editor of The Washington Post had earlier read “I pray you’re born with gills,” a short comic she made for Ten Years to Save the World book.
Who is Nicole Dungca?
Nicole Dungca, meanwhile, reports for the investigative unit of The Washington Post. She was also a co-host of the award-winning Broken Doors investigative podcast. Dungca has also written for esteemed publications such as the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, Oregonian, the Times-Picayune, and the Providence Journal. Currently, she is the president of the Asian American Journalists Association.
Who is Hannah Reyes Morales?
Morales was commended for a “creative series of photographs documenting a ‘youthquake’ occuring in Africa, where, by 2050, the continent will account for one-quarter of the world’s population and one-third of its young people.” The photographer shared on Instagram that she was “still in a daze” over the recognition. “It was not the easiest assignment but those we photographed helped us understand, bit by bit, what it means to be young and reshaping Africa, and the world.”
Morales first came into the spotlight when she was commissioned as the Nobel Peace Prize photographer in 2021. She was also a National Geographical explorer from 2022 to 2023.
What is the Pulitzer Prize?
The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually by Columbia University, New York City. These awards recognize outstanding achievement in American journalism, literature, and music, including contributions to public service.
The winner of the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category was Medar de la Cruz, a contributor at The New Yorker. His piece focused on a Rikers Island jail library worker, using “bold black-and-white images” to depict the humanizing power of books for both prisoners and staff. The staff of Associated Press won the Pulitzer for Feature Photography for their work documenting migrants journeying from Colombia to U.S. borders.
The other finalists include Angie Wang of The New Yorker and Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.