John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism
The nomination period for the 2021 award is open now through Feb. 12, 2021
John Bartlow Martin advanced the tenets of public interest journalism. His magazine stories about labor racketeering, poor working conditions, racism, crime and abuse of mental patients were marked by careful reporting, incisive writing and a palpable concern for victims. In many cases, these stories, published in major magazines such as Harper’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Collier's and The Atlantic, prompted public policy changes and inspired other journalists to make a difference with their own reporting.
In his 10 years at Medill, Martin helped students become skilled reporters and writers. Medill established the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism in 1988 to encourage outstanding professional work in this crucial area.
Award
A cash prize of $4,000 is awarded annually for the entry deemed most outstanding by the panel of judges. The winning author or team will be honored at a ceremony in May in Evanston.
Rules of entry and nomination form
The nomination form for the 2021 award is available now. The deadline to submit a nomination is Feb. 12, 2021. Submitted work must have been published during the 2020 calendar year.
Single stories or series work should shed light on the causes, consequences and remedies of problems in American society. The work should analyze and critique the policies, relationships and events behind these problems and solutions. Originality, excellence of writing and the impact of the article(s) also will be considered.
Submissions must have been published during the previous calendar year. Medill welcomes articles published in print or digital consumer magazines. Newsletters are excluded, but circulation size is not a criterion of the award. Entries may be submitted by either authors or publications. The award will go to the author(s). If submitting series work, please enter a maximum of three parts.
The administrator of this award reserves the right to authenticate, accept or disallow entries.
Alice Arlen Harry Ashmore Marshall B. Front John Kenneth Galbraith Frank B. Gibney Milton S. Gwirtzman Irving B. Harris Marshall M. Holleb Michael Janeway Sen. Edward M. Kennedy John A. Kouwenhoven Eric Larrabee Russell Lynes Newton S. Minow Bernard Nath Dorothy Olding Pierre Salinger Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Bernarda Shahn John L. Steele Rolf Stetter Sam Vaughn Willard Wirtz Rep. Sidney Yates (D.-Ill.)
Winners
Column 1
2021
Winner: Katie Engelhart, The California Sunday Magazine, for "What Happened in Room 10?"
Second Place: Michael Barajas, Texas Observer,“The Prison Inside Prison”
Honorable Mention: Stephanie Clifford, The Marshall Project and The Atlantic, “When the Misdiagnosis is Child Abuse”
Honorable Mention: Lizzie Presser, ProPublica, “The Black American Amputation Epidemic”
2020
Winner: Lizze Presser, ProPublica, for "The Dispossessed"
Honorable Mention: Karen Coates and Valeria Fernández,Pacific Standard, “The Young Hands”
Honorable Mention: Brian Goldstone, The New Republic, “The Homeless Many”
2019
Winner: Hannah Dreier, ProPublica, for "Trapped in Gangland"
Honorable Mention: Kiera Feldman, ProPublica, Type Investigations, Voice of America
Honorable Mention: Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler, Type Investigations and Smithsonian magazine
2018
Winner: Seth Freed Wessler, New York Times Magazine in partnership with The Investigative Fund, for "The Coast Guard’s ‘Floating Guantanamos’”
Honorable Mention: Alec MacGillis, ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine
Honorable Mention: Ari Berman, Mother Jones magazine
2017
Winner: Shane Bauer, Mother Jones magazine, for “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard”
Honorable Mention: Christie Thompson and Joseph Shapiro, The Marshall Project and NPR
Honorable Mention: Ari Berman, The Nation magazine
2016
Winners: Ken Armstrong, The Marshall Project, and T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, for a collaboration of “An Unbelievable Story of Rape”
Honorable Mention: Joaquin Sapien, California Sunday Magazine and ProPublica
