Molly Prize 2013: The Molly National Journalism Prize 2013 Submissions

THE SUBMISSIONS PROCESS FOR THE 2013 MOLLY JOURNALISM PRIZE IS NOW CLOSED.

The Molly National Journalism Prize of 2013—Recognizing Superior Journalism in the Tradition of Molly Ivins

The 2013 annual MOLLY Prize will be 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.

The MOLLY Prize and two Honorable Mentions will be presented at an awards dinner on Thursday, June 6, 2013, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas, keynoted by a special guest in the tradition of past keynoters (Dan Rather, Ellen Goodman, Seymour Hersh, Gail Collins, and Paul Krugman).

John Quiñones, the seven-time Emmy Award-winning ABC News broadcaster, will be keynote speaker. Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist Connie Schultz will be the emcee/presenter.  Lyndon and Kay Olson are Honorary Chairs of the event, at which the Bernard Rapoport Philanthropy Award will be presented to Susan Longley of Austin, president of The Longley Group and of The Texas Democracy Foundation.

The program highlight will be the presentation of the 2013 MOLLY Prize and two honorable mention awards. A Board of Advisors composed of prominent journalists reviewed all entries and selected the competition finalists.

The finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

• Ames Alexander and Karen Garloch, Charlotte Observer, and Joseph Neff and David Raynor, The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., “Prognosis: Profits” a joint project of the Charlotte Observer and News & Observer
• Ben Austen, “The Last Tower: The decline and fall of public housing,” Harper’s Magazine
• Shane Bauer, “No Way Out,” Mother Jones
• Pamela Colloff, “The Innocent Man,” Part 1 and Part 2 Texas Monthly
• Katherine Eban, “The Truth About the Fast and Furious Scandal,” Fortune
• Conor Friedersdorf, “Forget Julia, It’s the Life of Ahmed That Demands Attention,” “Security at the RNC: George Orwell Meets ‘Call of Duty Cityscape,” “This Week’s Senate Scandal: Scorn for the Fourth Amendment,” and “Why the Reaction is Different When the Terrorist is White,”The Atlantic
• Christopher Ketcham, “Stop Payment! A homeowners’ revolt against the banks,” Harper’s Magazine
• Mac McClelland, “Shelf Lives: My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine,” Mother Jones
• Michael Phillips, “War’s Wake” series (“For Wounded Vet, Love Pierces the Fog of War,” “One Taliban Bullet, Two Lives Lost,” and “War Tragedies Strike Families Twice”)
• Sarah Stillman, “The Throwaways: The police enlist young offenders as confidential informants. But the work is high-risk, largely unregulated, and sometimes fatal.” The New Yorker

Complete guidelines for submitting an entry appear below. For information on the award, attending the dinner or contributing to the MOLLY Prize fund, please contact [email protected], or call 512-477-0746.

RULES

• The MOLLY is an annual national print or online journalism award of $5,000 with two honorable mentions of $1,000, each to be presented by the Texas Democracy Foundation and The Texas Observer in memory and in honor of Molly Ivins.
• All entries will be judged on the basis of either a single piece or a series of up to four related articles or columns. Judges will value work that reflects Molly’s ability to look critically at the issues of the day with compassion and/or humor, tells the stories that need telling, challenges conventional wisdom, and focuses upon civil liberties or social justice.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

• Submissions must consist of material originally published in a U.S.-based publication in print or as part of an online magazine (NOTE: This does not include unedited blogs) between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012. One entry per individual will be accepted. Individual writers may enter on their own or be entered by the publication in which the work appeared. Multiple by-lines for a single entry are acceptable.  NOTE: Work that has appeared inThe Texas Observer is ineligible in order to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.
• Both electronic and hard copies of stories are required (unless the method of publication makes one or the other version impossible, in which case that should be clearly stated in the submission). A cover sheet for each entry must give the following information: author’s name, mailing address, telephone number(s), e-mail address, and a brief biography; publication name, editorial contact person, mailing address, telephone number(s), and e-mail address; and publication date.
• If submitting photocopies of published work, 8 1/2 ” x 11″ pages are preferred. If that requires great reduction of the print (as for a broadsheet), please provide a readable version of the story on 8 1/2 ” x 11″ pages with an additional photocopy of the story laid out in the publication. Award finalists may be required to submit tear sheets of the original work.
• One hard copy of each entry should be mailed to:The Texas Observer, attn: The MOLLY Prize, 307 W. 7th St, Austin, TX 78701.
• One electronic copy of each entry should be e-mailed to: [email protected]
• All entries must be postmarked or emailed no later than Friday, March 15, 2013.
• Entry fee is $25 and should be paid by check or money order when submitting the hard copy of the entry.

JUDGES

Initial screening for the entries will be conducted by journalists from the Board of Advisors, which governs the conducting of the award. Finalists and winners will be determined by an annually selected Executive Committee of the Board of Advisors.

SPONSORS

Funding of the prizes, expenses of the awards dinner, and travel and lodging for winning journalists and guest speakers will be underwritten through a fund established by friends of Molly Ivins. Contributions are welcome. If you want to become an event sponsor by purchasing a table for the awards dinner, please contact the publisher: Piper Stege Nelson at512.477.0746 or by email at [email protected].

BOARD OF ADVISORS
Click on the board of advisor members below to download their bio information.

Hugh Aynesworth, Maurine H. Beasley, Tom Bettag, Mike Blackman, Nate Blakeslee, Frederick Blevens, Roy Blount, Jr., Mary Breasted, Robert Bryce, Ken Bunting, Wanda Cash, Carlton Carl, Mike Cochran, Gail Collins, Patrick Cox, Greg Curtis, Lou Dubose, Ronnie Dugger, Margaret Engel,  James Fallows, Doug Foster, Ellen Goodman, Wade Goodwyn, Patti Kilday Hart, Jim Henderson, Steven Isenberg, Melissa Jones, Lewis Lapham, Myra MacPherson, David McHam, Dave McNeely, Kevin Merida, Judith Davidson Moyers, Victor Navasky, Kaye Northcott, Larry Norwood, Karen Olsson, John Pope, Dan Rather, Geoff Rips, Matt Rothschild, Ben Sargent, Connie Schultz, Robert Siegel, Erna Smith, Glenn Smith, Paul Stekler, Carlton Stowers, Diane Suchetka, Ellen Sweets, Mimi Swartz, Saralee Tiede, Rusty Todd, Calvin Trillin, Jim Willse and John Young.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

2012: Trevor Aaronson, Mother Jones 
2011: Jeff Sharlet, Harper’s Magazine
2010: A.C. Thompson, ProPublica
2009: Rick Casey, The Houston Chronicle
2008: Diane Suchetka, The Cleveland Plain Dealer