Throughout November, councils hosted a variety of Pulitzer Prizes Campfires from book fairs to conferences to nature hikes coupled with literature that brought participants together in discussion and community. In addition, councils continued to host presentations, exhibits, book discussions, and writing workshops featuring Pulitzer Prize winners and works.

In Kentucky, the 35th Annual Kentucky Book Fair featured special Pulitzer Prize winners Maria Henson and Joel Pett and gathered writers of all genres in celebration of reading and writing. Vermont Humanities explored the complexities of leadership at its 43rd Fall Conference with a number of Pulitzer Prize-winning writers. And Illinois Humanities hosted a one-day conference that provided resources and highlighted innovative projects and practices that connect reporters to the publics they serve.

In Indiana, the council wrapped up its popular Next Indiana Campfires program this month at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. Next Indiana Campfires was a series of outdoor events featuring scholar-led excursions, DIY “trek and talk” kits, and campfire meals that allowed participants to immerse themselves in their environment through hiking and enjoying literature- and place-based discussions.

Throughout the Pulitzer Prize centennial celebration, councils have hosted numerous presentations and exhibits. This month these programs continued with Kansas Humanities Council’s “The Pulitzer Project in Kansas: William Allen White and Freedom of Speech” series featuring a presentation by Erika Nelson, “Make Art, Not War,” that explored the different ways artists create their messages. Additionally, the council partnered with Stephen Wolgast, professor of journalism and digital media at Kansas State University and former editor of The New York Times, who gave a presentation entitled, “Free Speech in Times of Crises.”

The South Dakota Humanities Council also supported a lecture that featured Jonathan Weiner, a well-known popular science writer and journalist who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for his non-fiction work, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. In Vermont, the council honored the work of E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, in a presentation that highlighted White’s writing style and growth.

In North Carolina, poets were encouraged to submit ekphrastic (art-inspired) poetry at the “Pulitzer-worthy Ekphrastic (Art-inspired) Poetry Competition,” judged by Pulitzer finalist Alan Shapiro and held in partnership between the North Carolina Humanities Council and Craven Arts Council and Gallery, and to attend an evening of poetry readings at the Craven Arts Council and Gallery. Selected participant poems were read aloud during the evening.

Moving up the East Coast, the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities hosted two events that explored culture and nature. The first event featured Akiko Busch, whose publications ranged from design to nature, and the second entitled “Of Nature Composed” explored the intersection of nature, science, the arts, and the humanities, and according to the website, “included the music of 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winner John Luther Adams; American Modernist, Charles Ives, and Renaissance Composer, Johannes Ockeghem; with words of the American contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, Galway Kinnell and Mary Oliver; and naturalists, Henry David Thoreau and John Muir; with simultaneous multi-media imagery.”

Vermont Humanities, Delaware Humanities Forum, and the Oklahoma Humanities Council continued to conduct book discussions and writing workshops within several series that began earlier this year.

View all November Pulitzer Prizes Council Campfires programs on the Spotlight on Pulitzer page.