‘Osage’ playwright, Dylan win Pulitzers

‘Osage’ playwright, Dylan win Pulitzers

NEW YORK — Tracy Letts has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his brutal yet darkly comic play “August: Osage County,” and Bob Dylan has been awarded a special music citation. Junot Diaz won the prize for fiction Monday for “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Daniel Walker Howe won for history for “What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848.”

John Matteson won for biography for “Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.” Saul Friedlander won the general nonfiction award for “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.”

Two prizes were awarded for poetry: Robert Hass for “Time and Materials” and Philip Schultz for “Failure.” David Lang won the music award for “The Little Match Girl Passion,” which premiered Oct. 25, 2007, at Carnegie Hall in New York. Dylan’s citation noted his “profound impact on popular music and American culture.”

Pavarotti lip-synched his last performance

ROME — The maestro who conducted Luciano Pavarotti’s last performance says the ailing tenor lip-synched his aria at the opening ceremony of the Turin Olympics. Leone Magiera says in a book that the late tenor had been suffering from sharp pains months ahead of a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Pavarotti’s former manager Terri Robson said Monday that the decision to lip-synch was made because of the bitter cold during the event in 2006. Pavarotti died last September. He was 71.

Today’s birthdays

Comedian Shecky Greene is 82. Original Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie is 67. Guitarist Steve Howe of Yes is 61. Bassist Mel Schacher of Grand Funk Railroad is 57. Singer-actor John Schneider is 48. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin (Guns N’ Roses) is 46. Singer Julian Lennon is 45. Rapper Biz Markie is 44. Actress Robin Wright Penn is 42. Actress Patricia Arquette is 40. tDrummer Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five) is 37.