George Floyd was murdered when I was just about finished my Read-All-Fiction-Pulitzers Bucket List quest. It occurred to me then that reading and discussing Pulitzer Fiction winners through an inclusive lens could be one of many journeys that help Americans think and act more inclusively. I used my COVID-19 lockdown life to read Pulitzer Fiction winners again, this time through an inclusive lens, and create The Pulitzer Book Club. 2024 election divisiveness and subsequent attacks on DEI were fuel to expand the Pulitzer Book Club beyond Fiction winners (1948 to the present) and include Pulitzer Novel winners (1918 to 1947).
Why make time to read a novel written from another era, or choose to immerse yourself in a collection of literature that spans more than 100 years? It’s more than a way to experience the evolution of American literature. Pulitzer fiction winners reveal attitudes, customs, lifestyles, and values over time. Literary artists provide a window that invites assessment of American life, including the status of inclusion and triggers for exclusion.
Pulitzer Book Club identifies Inclusion Milestones that place each Pulitzer Fiction winner in time based on the year’s progress for traditionally marginalized Americans. Reading the Pulitzer Book Club’s Inclusion Milestones in sequence is a quick way to grasp the history of America’s long, arduous, ongoing march toward inclusion.
The Pulitzer Book Club aims to make reading Pulitzer winners and having dialog about inclusion less daunting, more real, and, ideally, also fun. Reading and thinking about Pulitzers through an inclusive lens has the potential to heighten mindfulness and lead to inclusive action, including considering all books through the lens of inclusion.
A free resource, the Pulitzer Book Club is non-profit and not about making money. Those who find value in the Pulitzer Book Club are encouraged to support their local library and causes with an inclusive mission.
This website is in serious need of inclusion. The Pulitzer Book Club is content-centric and obviously should be, but is not, interactive because there’s zero staff and no resources to manage an interactive community and social media presence. The Pulitzer Book Club is receptive to adoption by an organization with the mindset and resources to take this initiative to the next level.
Imagine the range of insights and bounty of ideas that could be generated if people all over America read for and ponder inclusion. Imagine the social change that will happen when people embrace and act on inclusive reading and thinking.
Joyce Rivas
Founder, Pulitzer Book Club
Thank You to those who helped create this website, including Travis Morin and Tradewinds Marketing, Lynn Hoban, Ann Jabro and her students, Ross Krumlish, Sheryl Smikle, Diane Greenwood, Patty Rappazzo, Cindy Baum-Baicker, Eileen McGovern, and Jane Williams. Special thanks to the generous, insightful pioneers who contributed as Featured Readers for the launch of the Pulitzer Book Club. Most of all, thanks to my parents for everything, including those many trips to the library.