APF Staff

Those in New York City on Friday, Jan. 17th, please join former APF fellow Builder Levy at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas (at 43rd St.), from 6-7:30 pm for a book signing for his new book, “Appalachia USA.” Builder’s 2004 project for the Alicia Patterson Foundation was on Appalachia. Many of the photographs included in the book were taken during his fellowship year. Listen to Builder’s interview about the book on West Virginia Public Radio program Inside Appalachia Read an article about Appalachia USA published in the WV Gazette-Mail http://www.builderlevy.com For comments or feedback:builder@builderlevy.com

Congratulations to Esther Kaplan! Esther wrote this winning piece under her APF fellowship and it appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review. http://www.texasobserver.org/molly-prize-archives/ The Molly National Journalism Prize—Recognizing Superior Journalism in the Tradition of Molly Ivins! The MOLLY Prize is awarded for an article or series of up to four short, related articles or columns telling the stories that need telling, challenging conventional wisdom, focusing on civil liberties and/or social justice, and embodying the intelligence, deep thinking and/or passionate wit that marked Molly’s work. This year’s prize has been awarded to Esther Kaplan for “Losing Sparta: The Bitter Truth Behind the Gospel of Productivity” in The Virginia Quarterly Review. HONORABLE MENTIONS:Alex Campbell, Buzzfeed News: “Battered, Bereaved & Behind Bars” (October 2014)David Jackson, Gary Marx & Duaa Eldeib, Chicago Tribune: “Harsh Treatment” (December 2014) The MOLLY National Journalism Prize was presented at a dinner on Thursday, May 28, 2015, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and immigration reform activist Jose Antonio Vargas delivered a keynote address, and actress and activist Kathleen

Lee van der Voo has been signed by Palsgrave Macmillan to do a book based on her APF research, “Sharecroppers of the Sea.”The working title for the book is “The Fish Market.”

Good News for Science and Environmental Writers A newly endowed fellowship for science and environmental writing is being established this year under a gift by the Cissy Patterson Foundation, of Washington, D.C. The gift of $500,000 will allow the Alicia Patterson Foundation to designate a journalist with an environmental or science writing project as the annual Cissy Patterson fellow. The Alicia Patterson Foundation’s fellowship program is now in its 50th class of fellows. Journalists receiving an Alicia Patterson fellowship receive $40,000 yearly to pursue an independent project of vital interest. Fellows complete four reports, which are distributed through the Patterson foundation and through the Investigative News Network. Cissy Patterson was the publisher of the Washington Times-Herald. Her niece, Alicia Patterson, was the founding publisher and editor of Newsday. The board members of the Cissy Patterson Foundation established the fellowship in recognition of her career in promoting serious journalism. Applications may be downloaded at www.aliciapatterson.org or by writing to the Alicia Patterson Foundation at 1100 Vermont Ave. NW Suite 900, Washington, DC 20005. The annual deadline

The Daily Beast The Louisiana Nazis Who Courted Steve Scalise 1-03-15by Jason Berry Kenny Knight and Howie Farrell, the two men at the heart of the Steve Scalise scandal, were well known in Louisiana politics as longtime operatives of Duke’s Holocaust-denying hate machine. In 1989, a newly registered Republican in Louisiana named David Duke won his only election by a fluke. That year, a state representative in Metairie, an affluent Jefferson Parish suburb just across the line from New Orleans, vacated his seat to become a judge. The off-year special election into which Duke threw himself drew little media notice at first. Duke, who touted himself as a pro-life fiscal conservative, was known as an ex-Klan leader; he eschewed overtly racist language and instead pointed to crime in the city, criticizing affirmative action and minority set-asides. He landed in a runoff with John Treen, a silver-haired homebuilder, GOP stalwart and brother of the state’s first Republican governor, Dave Treen, who had left office in 1983. Media coverage failed to probe the depth of Duke’s ties