Four Blue Hens have received journalism’s highest honor, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize. 

Paul Kane, from the Class of 1992, and Todd Frankel, Class of 1997, were part of a Washington Post team that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for their “sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle." 

David Hoffman, a 1975 non-degree alumnus and editorial board member for The Washington Post, won the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing for “a compelling and well-researched series on new technologies and the tactics authoritarian regimes use to repress dissent in the digital age, and how they can be fought.” Hoffman previously received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy.

Jaqueline Jones, Class of 1970, won the Pulitzer Prize in History for her 2023 book, No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era. Jones is a MacArthur Fellow whose earlier books, A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama’s America (2013) and Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to the Present (1985), were prior Pulitzer Prize finalists.

“We’re holding our heads very high,” said Nancy Karibjanian, director of UD’s journalism program. “This recognition represents the very best of the profession and the very best of our alumni. It’s an honor to see their UD education represented in journalism’s public service mission. Their accomplishment inspires me, and I know it will inspire our students.”   

With the addition of the 2024 awardees, UD boasts 11 Blue Hens who've won Pulitzers for their reporting and writing, including:  

• Doug Donovan, Class of 1993, and photographer Lloyd Fox, Class of 1988, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting in 2020 for uncovering a former mayor’s book publishing scheme; 

• Harry K. King Jr., Class of 1963, a member of The Boston Globe team that received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for nuclear arms race coverage;

• Norman Lockman, who earned his master’s degree in 1996 and received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Local Investigative Specialized Reporting for a series on race relations;

• Melanie Magee, Class of 1986, a member of the Dallas Morning News team that received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for examining global violence against women; 

• Retired Distinguished English Professor W.D. Snodgrass, who received the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his book, Heart’s Needle; and 

• Thomas Turcol, Class of 1977, who received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in General News Reporting for his City Hall coverage exposing local corruption.