Author Cormac McCarthy and saxophonist Ornette Coleman are among the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winners, organizers announced Monday afternoon.

The $10,000 US prizes honour excellence in the realms of arts, literature, journalism and music.

Cormac McCarthy's latest work, The Road, has vaulted the reclusive author into the spotlight.
(Derek Shapton/Knopf/Associated Press)

McCarthy, who usually lives a reclusive life but has recently been in the spotlight after talk show host Oprah Winfrey chose him for her televised book club, was honoured for his recent acclaimed novel The Road.

Coleman, who has worked in the music business for nearly five decades, won the Pulitzer for his album Sound Grammar.

Organizers also announced other winners in the Pulitzer category of letters, drama and music, including:

• Drama — David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole.
• Poetry — Natasha Trethewey for Native Guard.
• General non-fiction — Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
• Biography — Debby Applegate for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.
• History — Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff for The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.

This year's winners among the 14 Pulitzer Prize journalism categories include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe and New York's Daily News.

Organizers also announced special citations for science fiction icon Ray Bradbury and famed jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

The prizes will be formally awarded at a luncheon on May 21 at Columbia University in New York City.

Before his death in 1911, newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer left instructions to create his namesake prize and endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism to support his fledgling new honour. The first awards were handed out in 1917.

With files from the Associated Press