ALUMNI NEWS
2022 PULITZER PRIZE WINNER: Dr. Salamishah Tillet ’92
A light circled around Dr. Salamishah Tillet ’92 as she sat
down for an interview with LUMEN. It was coming from her
son, Sidney, who was rotating around her chair spotlighting
his mother with a flashlight. Always humble and just a
“I was overwhelmed,” says
little bit shy, Salamishah
Salamishah. “It was sort of
was thrown into the lime-
unbelievable. I suppose it’s
light by her proud son,
a cliché to feel shocked by
who wanted to add his own
such an amazing honor, but
spotlight to the news that
I think partly because I am
his mother had won the
a writer and someone who
prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
understands American his-
Salamishah was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism on May 9, 2022,
‘‘
tory and who reads so many other writers – and oftentimes when you’re writing
The idea of becoming a critic is so grounded in the way that I was taught to read literature in high school. I really think I had some of the best English teachers in the country.” – Dr. Salamishah Tillet ’92
ture, but also the ways in which you can tell an epic history in a novel through the singular intimate character,” she says.
for her New York Times essays on race in arts and culture. As a contributing critic at large for the Times, Salamishah earned the accolade – the nation’s highest in journalism – for what the Pulitzer board described as “learned and stylish writing about Black stories in art and popular culture – work that successfully bridges academic
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about someone like Alice Walker or poet Rita Dove, you’ll put before their name ‘Pulitzer Prize-winning etc.’ – there’s kind of an intimate relationship I have to these moments when Black women in particular have won this award. So the weight and that cherished history is also part of this too.”
winning critic was undoubtedly nurtured in her Newark Academy English classes. Always a lover of reading, Salamishah mainly dove into Nancy Drew or Agatha Christie mystery novels, until she was introduced to
Then, when studying with Alfonso Orsini, Salamishah explored Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. “Just being in the English class reading Hurston’s words out loud and Mr. Orsini’s attentive-
the likes of Chinua Achebe’s
ness to the beauty of her
Things Fall Apart in Joe Ball’s
southern Black vernacular
eighth-grade World Cultures
English – to have that as a
class. “That was kind of a
ninth grader, and to under-
and nonacademic critical
Salamishah’s journey to
really eye-opening moment
stand power, inequity and
discourse.”
becoming a Pulitzer Prize-
to both West African litera-
language was really, really
LUMEN
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FALL 2022