What makes a Pulitzer Prize winner? The Pulitzer on the Road podcast travels across the country to meet with authors and journalists to share the stories behind their prize-winning work.

Today, we’re sharing a special conversation from the podcast Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. 

The episode you’re about to hear aired just this month. It’s an entertaining and insightful talk with Percival Everett, who was named the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Together, they cover a range of topics, from his immersive process writing James, to teaching in the digital age, and why he still asks his students to watch Blazing Saddles by Mel Brooks.

If you’d like to hear more from Talk Easy, you can visit talkeasypod.com or search “Talk Easy” wherever you podcast.

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Pulitzer on the Road

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso and Percival Everett

Jayne Anne Phillips won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Night Watch, a vividly rendered account set in Phillips’ native West Virginia in the aftermath of the Civil War, that follows a severely wounded Union veteran, a 12-year-old girl and her traumatized mother as they struggle to heal. In this final episode of season two, she is in conversation with author Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Board member and 2016 winner for Fiction for his novel, The Sympathizer. Together the authors discuss writing about war, the transformative power of literature, and the ways knowledge is passed from one generation to the next.

To access this transcript and learn more about Jayne Anne Phillips’ Pulitzer-winning work, visit Pulitzer on the Road.

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Jayne Anne Phillips and Viet Thanh Nguyen on Writing and War

Jonathan Eig won the 2024 Pulitzer in Biography for King: A Life, a revelatory book on Martin Luther King Jr. that draws on new sources to enrich our understanding of the civil rights leader’s life. When Eig heard the 2024 Pulitzer-win for Audio Reporting, You Didn’t See Nothin, he knew he had to talk with the podcast host, Yohance Lacour of the Invisible Institute. In this award-winning podcast, Lacour revisits his reporting and experience of covering the 1997 brutal beating of 13-year-old Lenard Clark, a story that Eig also covered as a local journalist back in 1997. In this episode, the two writers discuss what it means to revisit old stories in order to offer new perspectives, the importance of collaboration, and the role journalism can still play in helping America heal from the past.

To access this transcript and learn more about Jonathan Eig and Yohance Lacour’s Pulitzer-winning work, visit Pulitzer on the Road.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonathan Eig and Yohance Lacour: New Perspectives on Stories from the Past

In 2023, a record breaking number of migrants braved the harrowing journey to the U.S./Mexico border in hopes of being granted asylum in America. In this episode, we hear from three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who covered different stages of this experience. First, we hear from two photojournalist staff contributors to Associated Press’ 2024 Pulitzer win for Feature Photography: Iván Valencia walks us through the dangerous journey migrants experience crossing the Darien Gap, while Gregory Bull shows us the challenges migrants face once they reach the U.S. border. Finally, Hannah Dreier of The New York Times, winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, sheds light on the exploitation that unaccompanied migrant children often face after successfully entering the U.S. 

To access this transcript and learn more about Iván Valencia, Gregory Bull and Hannah Dreier’s Pulitzer-winning work, visit Pulitzer on the Road.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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Hannah Dreier, Iván Valencia, and Gregory Bull: To the Border and Beyond

Journalists Sarah Conway, formerly of City Bureau, and Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for Missing in Chicago, an investigation into how the Chicago Police Department has been handling missing person cases for Black girls and women. They’re joined by Salamishah Tillet, a Pulitzer-prize winner for Criticism and the co-founder of the organization, A Long Walk Home, to discuss their data- and community-driven reporting, how they analyzed one million police records, and the differences between journalism and activism.

To access this transcript and learn more about Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Sarah Conway’s Pulitzer-winning work, visit Pulitzer on the Road.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Sarah Conway on Going Beyond the Data 

Sanaz Toossi won the 2023 Pulitzer in Drama for her play, English, a powerful play about four Iranian adults preparing for an English language exam and grappling with how learning a new language may alter their identities and represent a new life. Sanaz takes us behind the scenes as she and her cast and crew prepare to open English on Broadway. Then, she and two-time Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage discuss what it means to be a political writer, the ways they’ve incorporated joy and humor into stories about difficult topics, and how they maintain their artistic voices. 

To access this transcript and learn more about Sanaz Toossi and Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning work, visit Pulitzer on the Road.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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