If the Pulitzer Prize committee handed out awards based on a writer's influence, then Colbert King wouldn't have won this year's award for commentary. When I read that he won, I asked myself, "Who is Colbert King?" It's uncomfortable for a news junkie like me to have never heard of King. He must not be a conservative, or I would have stumbled upon him in my tours through the Right side of the blogosphere. After going through the King columns submitted to the prize committee, I'm disappointed I missed a fine thrashing of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), a wrenching portrait of a crime scene, and a biting attack on the religious double standards of Saudi Arabia.

On the book front, Robert Caro won for his latest volume of LBJ's biography Master of the Senate, and Rick Atkinson won for An Army at Dawn, his first volume of a World War II trilogy.

Steve Rhodes goes through all the arts and letters winners and nominees.

"2003 Pulitzer Prize Awards"