New York’s Mayor Gives City Writers Their Own Version of the Pulitzer

New York Times: The literary world still has not recovered from its Pulitzer snub last week, when the absence of an award for fiction incensed publishers, authors and booksellers.

But they may find some consolation in a new set of prizes that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will announce on Thursday: the N.Y.C. Literary Honors, given to living writers whose work and lives have been informed by New York City, as a way of highlighting its place as home to the publishing industry and an inspiration to authors.

The honorees, to be named at an evening ceremony at Gracie Mansion, are closely associated with New York in their work and in their lives. They include Paul Auster for fiction, Roz Chast for humor, Walter Dean Myers for children’s literature and Robert A. Caro for nonfiction. Mr. Caro’s first book, “The Power Broker,” a biography of Robert Moses, is one of the best-known works of nonfiction ever written about the city and its history.

Way to go Mr. Mayor! Any other communities doing likewise?