Penn alumna wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction

Jennifer Egan, a 1985 College graduate, was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday for her novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad.

Egan is the first alumna in the University’s history to win the award for a distinguished piece of fiction.

A Visit from the Goon Squad — which contains sections written in the form of a PowerPoint presentation — takes “an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age,” according to the Pulitzer Prize website.

Alan Schwarz, a New York Times sportswriter and 1990 College graduate, was selected as a finalist for the Public Service Pulitzer Prize for his work investigating concussions in football and other sports.

“It’s an incredible honor to have your work recognized as being influential,” Schwarz, a former Daily Pennsylvanian sportswriter, said.

Director of the Kelly Writers House Al Filries said Egan has been “extremely kind, generous and modest” in her work with the Writers House since it was founded in 1994.

On May 14, Egan will return to read at the Kelly Writers House Alumni Day.

“A lot of people who won the Pulitzer would cancel that, but she is committed to her reading and will do this pro-bono,” he said.

In winning the fiction prize, Egan joins the ranks of Annie Proulx, Harper Lee and Ernest Hemingway.

But “at one point, Jenny was just an undergrad sitting in a fiction class doing the best that she can,” Filreis said.

The date of the Kelly Writers House Alumni Day has been changed from May 18 to correct an initial version of the article.

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