Aretha Franklin to receive posthumous Pulitzer Prize

The Queen of Soul is now a Pulitzer Prize winner, reports multiple news sources, including CNN. Aretha Franklin on Monday was awarded a special citation prize “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades,” according to a release. She is the first individual woman to receive a special citation prize, which was first awarded in 1930. Past winners have included Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and John Coltrane. Franklin died last August at age 76 of pancreatic cancer. During her career, which spanned more than half a century, Franklin became the first woman admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and had 73 songs crack the Billboard Top 100.