Today Columbia University announced the winners of the 2008 Pulitzer Prizes. The chosen ones will pick up their Daniel Chester French-designed medals at a luncheon at Columbia on May 29. In the always intriguing criticism category, it was back to the arts after the 2007 medal went to restaurant critic Jonathan Gold. This year Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe got the nod for his "penetrating and versatile command of the visual arts, from film and photography to painting." We were also pleased to see The Philadelphia Inquirer's Inga Saffron nominated as a finalist "for her forceful critiques that illuminate the vital interplay between architecture and the life of her city." Taking home the prize in the editorial cartooning category was Michael Ramirez of Investor's Business Daily "for his provocative cartoons that rely on originality, humor and detailed artistry."

As for photography, Adrees Latif of Reuters won in the breaking news photograpy category "for his dramatic photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar," while Preston Gannaway of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor won the feature photography prize "for her intimate chronicle of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness."

And this year's special citation goes to the cultural phenomenon that is Bob Dylan "for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." We wonder: has the Pulitzer Board seen his paintings?