Woodrow alumnus Lawrence Wright was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book The Looming Tower.
Many Lakewood-Now readers filled my inbox this week, making sure that we knew that Woodrow Class of 1965 graduate and former Lakewood resident Lawrence Wright was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction earlier this week for his book The Looming Tower, subtitled Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
Wright is an author (six books on varied topics) and screenwriter (including the 1998 release The Siege, starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Annette Bening), and probably best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992. For that publication, he has written on international affairs, religion, science, and perhaps most importantly on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist events, including the tragedies of September 11, 2001.
The general nonfiction category of The Pulitzer Prizes is awarded "for a distinguished book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category." The award carries a cash prize of $10,000.