The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today, and the Washington Post racked up an extraordinarily impressive six of them. It's no surprise that the Public Service category went to Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille for their investigative series into the poor conditions at Walter Reed Hospital. The Breaking News award for their coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings was also a good bet. Some of the other awards were slightly more......

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and local resident Tim Weiner won the National Book Award's nonfiction category for Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A., a sweeping 600-page critical history of the agency with a particular emphasis on the intelligence failures that have occurred during the agency's relatively short period of existence. "Legacy of Ashes," writes Weiner, “is the record of the first sixty years of the Central Intelligence Agency. It describes how......

>> The one and only Chaka Khan is at H2O tonight as a pre-party of sorts to the kick off of Howard Homecoming festivities, which officially start tomorrow. Doors at 5 p.m., show begins at 7. >> Operation Filmmaker is documentary of sorts that follows the strange story of Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed. Mohmed was given an opportunity to work as a production assistant in Prague on the set of Liev Schreiber's 2005......

In England, being named poet laureate is a lot like being named to the U.S. Supreme Court: once there, you're there for life. More importantly, you're expected to be the living, breathing embodiment of a tradition, of an institution constructed entirely of words, texts, precedent. And, though you aren't expected to wear robes when performing your job, you are expected to pen occasional verses on the birth of a royal or on the opening of......

>> Seattle's Minus the Bear's latest release, Planet of Ice, finds the group continuing to delve into complex and progressive compositions while engaging in a brooding atmosphere that has added a new and intriguing element to their always fascinating sound. They'll be at the Black Cat with Subtle and ELA. 8 p.m., $15 advance, $17 at the door. >> Pulitzer Prize-winning author for Empire Falls, Richard Russo will be at Politics and Prose to......

MONDAY: Atlantic Monthly correspondent Robert D. Kaplan will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his latest book, Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts. According to Kaplan, journalists are too quick to report on the negative aspects of the military. Commence with bickering over the Iraq war ... now. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Blogger Diane Vadino will be at Olsson's in Dupont Circle to read from her first novel, Smart Girls Like Me. 7 p.m. She'll also......

"Books," wrote the poet Philip Larkin, "are a load of crap." No doubt Larkin, one of the most gifted lyric poets of the 20th century and a career librarian at the University of Hull, was being ironic. But irony or no, the participants and sponsors of this Saturday's National Book Festival vehemently disagree. Held every year for the last six years on the National Mall -- rain or shine -- the festival brings together marquee-name......

>> Most of the city it seems will be heading to RFK after work, so plan your Metro rides on the Blue and Orange line accordingly. >> The band that brought you the third most played song on the DCeiver's iPod, The Daybreak Line, is teaming up with three other list-worth bands (The Grownup Noise, The Able Birds and Aubriot) tonight at the Red & the Black. $8, 4 bands, too good to pass......

With Congress in recess, it's officially the August doldrums here at Reader, Meet Author. If you have any tips, feel free to drop us a line. Otherwise, read some good books and stay cool. MONDAY: Pushcart Prize-winning author Katherine Taylor will be at Olsson's Books & Records in Dupont Circle to talk about her debut novel Rules for Saying Goodbye, a coming-of-age tale that straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Man......

MONDAY: A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the wife of Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Connie Schultz will be at Politics and Prose to discuss her book ... And His Lovely Wife, which is her behind-the-scenes look at Brown's campaign and their marriage. 7 p.m. In Last One In, Nicholas Kulish, who was embedded with a Marine attack-helicopter squadron for the Wall Street Journal, spins a slightly unbelievable tale of a gossip columnist who ends up covering......

In last week's Classical Music Agenda, I led with a concert on Sunday afternoon in the Corcoran Gallery of Art's acoustically splendid auditorium. It was the first concert of the season from the Contemporary Music Forum, but not even the Washington premiere of a major piece of new music, Paul Moravec's Tempest Fantasy, could draw more than a sparse audience. The composer himself was on hand to give a brief presentation on Tempest Fantasy, which......

One of those stereotypes about classical music that I would like to explode is that it is the musical equivalent of a dusty museum. Yes, classical musicians often play music from previous centuries, but the performances themselves are very much modern and of our time. What's more is that often classical musicians play new music, and that is an exciting thing to hear. RELATIVELY NEW: >> A favorite local group devoted to contemporary music, the......

Last year, American composer Gunther Schuller, whose music has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy, turned 80 years old. After being honored with a series of concerts in Boston, he showed up here in Washington at the Library of Congress to accept the honor of being named a Living Legend. Last night he was back, this time at the Phillips Collection, as part of the museum's latest Artful Evening, this time to draw......

After reporting yesterday on Dutilleux's Correspondances with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, I made the trip up to Baltimore in the pursuit of new music. In this case, it was the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's performance of John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. It is the most celebrated work of music written to commemorate the victims of the September 11 attacks, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in......

This is your last weekend to take part in Take a Friend to the Symphony Month, the brain child of music blogger Drew McManus at Adaptistration. The big news in classical music this week is that the area's two leading symphony orchestras are both offering great concerts that feature 20th-century music and even some from the 21st century. We are going to try to review them both for you. MODERN SYMPHONY: >> Former music director......

Now that the Mozart celebrations have really begun, our classical music listening opportunities are going to multiply out of control. Hang on tight, dear readers, because February is going to be busy. We will be here every Sunday to offer some guidance. As always, if you want the whole story, head over to our Classical Week in Washington feature at Ionarts. FREE CONCERTS: >> All of the regular free concert series in Washington are now......

...is exactly what we hope to hear sometime down the line. No, seriously. The folks behind the Pulitzer Prize -- journalism's most prestigious award -- are adding "Online Journalism" to their 14 existing categories for the prize. It seems that they have become aware of this thing called the internets, and are beginning to recognize that many of the country's most prominent newspapers have expanded their coverage and features online (yes, Posties, we mean you)......

A few goodies to make your week go by just a little bit faster... >> It may be 60 degrees on this fine November day, but that's not going to stop the folks over at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden from opening their annual skating rink. Go on over and have a twirl. 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; $7 for adults. >> Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy), plays the 9:30 Club this evening. Famous......

The Post notes yesterday that native Washingtonian and author Edward Jones has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Jones, recipient of the National Book Critics Circle award and the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Known World", will receive $500,000 from the MacArthur Foundation, spread out quarterly over five years. Jones has lived in the D.C. area for most of his life. His first book, the short story collection "Lost in the City"", tells fourteen stories......

(From DCist contributor Kanishka Gangopadhyay) Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the epic graphic novel Maus, comes to Politics & Prose Tuesday at 7 p.m. to sign copies of his new work "In the Shadow of No Towers" . The innovative work is the first extended piece Spiegelman has written since the legendary Maus series. Packaged audaciously at more than twice the size of the industry standard graphic novel, In the Shadow is guaranteed......