Reactions to Pulitzer Prize Win
Although Stephen Dunn won the Pulitzer in 2001, his career as a poet began decades earlier. As such, over the years, Dunn garnered legions of professional and nonprofessional supporters. Here are some of the responses to his Pulitzer from his biggest supporters.
Dunn has participated in many interviews, especially after winning the Pulitzer Prize. The three links embedded in the captions of the pictures on the right-hand side are three interviews that encapsulate Dunn's personality and reactions to winning the Pulitzer Prize.
In his interview with Poets and Writers, Dunn says that winning the Pulitzer for Different Hours did not change much in his life. Dunn credits his age and maturity for keeping things "in place."
In the another featured interview with Pedestal Magazine, Dunn describes his writing process, Different Hours, and the aftermath of receiving the Pulitzer Prize. Through these clips, it is obvious that Dunn enjoys interviewing and doing pubic readings of his work. He is as conversational as his poetry.
Interestingly, in an interview with William Walsh for Five Points: A Journal of Literature and Art, Dunn admits that winning the Pulitzer did change him and his writing but briefly. In the interview Dunn states:
"But to win the Pulitzer, I don't think it changed anything except it made me like myself too much for about three months. Hard to write well, or at all, when you're full of yourself."