49th Annual Competition Fellowship Winners Announced for 2014

49th Annual Alicia Patterson Foundation Competition Fellowship Winners Announced for 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Journalists will pursue topics ranging from America’s judicial detainees to gas pipeline safety and dramatic changes in nursing homes and mental health systems as the newest recipients of an Alicia Patterson Foundation grant, American journalism’s oldest writing fellowship.

The annual fellowships are designed to foster independent in-depth reporting on national and international affairs. The Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship program for journalists was established in 1965 in memory of Alicia Patterson, who was editor and publisher of Newsday for nearly twenty-three years before her death in 1963.

The Fellows are awarded $40,000 for a 12-month grant and $20,000 for a six-month grant.

The new Fellows will spend their fellowship months traveling, researching, and writing articles on their projects for the APF REPORTER, a quarterly web magazine published by the Foundation. Every year, the Fellows’ articles and photo essays are widely distributed through newspapers, news services, magazines, and websites worldwide. Fellows’ work often is published jointly with their “home” news outlet and has resulted in many national awards.

The winners were selected through a highly competitive process of screening by two panels of judges, as well as submitting detailed proposals, examples of past work, and references.

More than 320 reporters, editors, and photographers have won Alicia Patterson fellowships since the foundation was established in 1965 to honor the former publisher of Newsday.

The trustees of the foundation named one Fellow in honor of Josephine Patterson Albright, who was a major benefactor of the foundation. The Josephine Patterson Albright fellow is Ada Calhoun, who will be examining legal changes to reproductive rights in America.

For program information and applications for the 50th annual competition, contact: Alicia Patterson Foundation, 1090 Vermont Ave. NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005. Phone: (202) 393-5995 Email: info@aliciapatterson.org. Applications also may be downloaded at: www.aliciapatterson.org. Applications must be submitted by October 1, 2014.

The 2014 APF Fellows are:

Ada Calhoun
Freelance writer, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Reproductive Rights and the Criminal Justice System”

David Hage and Josephine Marcotty
Editor, reporter, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“The American Buffalo”

Jean Lee
Associated Press bureau chief, Seoul, Korea
“Inside North Korea”

Art Levine
Freelance writer, Washington, D.C. (6-month fellowship)
“Mental Health Reform and Innovation: Promise and Practice”

James Ridgeway
Freelance writer, Washington, D.C.
“Civil Deaths: The Criminal Justice System and Modern-Day Banishment”

Wallace Roberts
Freelance writer, Williamstown, VT
“Public Responsibility and Privatism in the U.S. Nursing Home Industry”

April Saul
Photojournalist, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA.
“Camden, N.J.: No Place to Grow Up”

Kristina Shevory
Freelance writer, Austin, TX
“Shadow Wars: The Era of Freelance Soldiers and Special Operations Forces”

Susan Stellin and Graham MacIndoe
Freelance writer, freelance photographer, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“The UnAmericans: Detained, Deported and Divided”

Marcus Stern and Sebastian Jones
Freelance writers, Acworth, GA. and Washington, D.C.
“How Safe are America’s Energy Pipelines?”

Jeff Tollefson, reporter, Nature magazine, New York, N.Y.
“How to Save a Rainforest: Brazilians’ Battle Over the Amazon”

Final Judges for the 49th Annual Competition:
Sandy Close, founder, Pacific News Service and New America Media
James Rupert, foreign correspondent and APF fellow, 1991
Ellen Warren, columnist and senior reporter, The Chicago Tribune