Friday from the Archives: “Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson, Former ECU Student” by Celeste Pottier in NCLR 2003
Students are back! We are welcoming our new cohort of interns and assistants, undergraduates and graduate students alike, to help with our 2026 issues. If you know of an ECU student who would like to learn about journal editing, send them our way!
Of course, that also means we will again be faced with eventually saying goodbye to them, as well. We remember with particular fondness Celeste McMaster (nee Pottier), who has served not only NCLR while a student, but is completing her time serving all of North Carolina’s writers as the Membership Director for the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Bon Vovage, Celeste!
In our 2003 issue, Celeste wrote about another former ECU grad, Rick Atkinson, who had recently won the Pulitzer Prize for his war history narrative book, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1945.
Born in occupied Munich, his father a US Army officer, Atkinson was raised in a military family environment. After receiving his BA from East Carolina University, he earned his MA in English literature at the University of Chicago. He served as an embedded reporter for the Washington Post and has since earned numerous other book awards. He is the author of eight narrative histories about five American wars. His most recent book, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, debuted as the #1 New York Times nonfiction bestseller.
Reminder that our 2026 special feature “Saluting Military Writing” submission window closes in just a few more days, August 31.
Add the 2003 issue to your collection today!
