Woo Il-yon, the Korean-American author of the nonfiction book ‘Master Slave Husband Wife,’ which has been praised by critics and journalists worldwide, has won the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious award in the United States.
The Pulitzer Prize Board announced on May 6 that Woo is the co-winner of the 108th edition in the biography category. While a Korean-American photojournalist has previously won the Pulitzer Prize in the journalism category, this is the first time a Korean-American author has won in the book category. In 2021, Korean-American author Cathy Park Hong was a finalist in the general nonfiction category for her essay ‘Minor Feelings,’ but did not win.
For his book ‘King: A Life,’ Jonathan Eig joined Woo as a winner in the biography category. Founded in 1917, the Pulitzer Prize annually recognizes winners in journalism, including news and reporting photography, and the arts, including literature and drama.
Woo, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea, earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Yale University and a doctorate in English from Columbia University. His father is Woo Kyu-sung, an architect who designed the Whanki Museum in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and the Asia Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province.
‘Master Slave Husband Wife’ is a nonfiction book published in January last year that tells the story of the enslaved Craft couple who escaped from the slaveholding U.S. state of Georgia to the abolitionist North in December 1848. Ellen Craft, a light-skinned black woman, posed as a white male plantation owner with a disability, and her husband William Craft, Ellen’s slave, traveled north with her in disguise, switching between steamboats, wagons, and trains to avoid the eyes of slave bounty hunters and soldiers. According to the state of Georgia, Ellen’s mother was a black slave, and her father was a white owner. Ellen’s skin color was so light that she was often mistaken for part of a white family, while her husband William, an enslaved carpenter, was much darker.
The Crafts moved to England, where in 1860, they published ‘Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom’, an account of their enslavement and escape that spurred the abolitionist movement. “The story of the Crafts is one of the most moving love stories in history, and it’s not just their love story, but many other kinds of love, including the love between parents and children,” Woo said of ‘Master Slave Husband Wife.’ The Pulitzer Prize Board called it “an American love story that challenges our nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all.”
The book received early media and critical attention. The New York Times called it one of the “10 Best Books of 2023,” describing it as “a true story of love and freedom that chronicles an epic journey from slavery to freedom.” Other publications, such as The New Yorker, Time, and the Chicago Public Library, have also named it a bestseller.
“I was constantly inspired by every single choice the Crafts made, and the way they constantly challenged themselves was a constant inspiration to me,” Woo said in a U.S. media interview last year.
