The Stranger‘s Eli Sanders has won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, beating out competition from both The New York Times and The Virginian-Pilot.

The Pulitzer announcement calls Sanders’ June 2011 article, “The Bravest Woman in Seattle,” a “haunting story of a woman who survived a brutal attack that took the life of her partner, using the woman’s brave courtroom testimony and the details of the crime to construct a moving narrative.”

“We’re freaking out,” confirms editor Christopher Frizzelle in an email.

Sanders is the first alt-weekly writer to win a Pulitzer since Jonathan Gold in 2007.

The Stranger joins the Boston Phoenix (1994), L.A. Weekly (2007), The Village Voice (1981, 1986, 2000) and Willamette Week (2005) in the pantheon of Pulitzer-winning alternative newsweeklies.