MOLLY NATIONAL JOURNALISM PRIZES
The 2024 MOLLY Awards was held on Thursday, May 30 at The Line hotel in downtown Austin . Congratulations to our winner, Alicia Inez Guzmán at Searchlight New Mexico, for her piece “Buried secrets, poisoned bodies.”
The MOLLY’s will return in 2025. Watch this space for updates regarding the event and contest.
Molly Ivins is our legend. Her editorial run here lasted six years, from 1970 through 1976, when we lent her back to the wider world. Thing is, she never quite left: Her irreverence and irrepressibility continue to help define the Observer. Her love for the organization and drive to make it go left us, when she died in 2007, a clear path to the future.
We named the MOLLY (always all caps) Prize after her as a way to honor this legacy. Winners represent the best in American journalism; reporters willing to tell stories that need telling. They’ve included Michael Grabell and Howard Berkes with ProPublica and NPR, Shane Bauer in Mother Jones, Joseph Neff, the News & Observer, Esther Kaplan in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Dave Philipps in The Gazette (Colorado Springs), and Sarah Stillman in the New Yorker.
Each year, winners are feted at a dinner in Austin. Past keynoters of the event include Joan Walsh, Jose Antonio Vargas, Dan Rather, Ellen Goodman, Seymour Hersh, Gail Collins, Paul Krugman, Connie Schultz, John Quiñones and Jamelle Bouie.
Our annual MOLLY Prize dinner not only serves as an opportunity to celebrate the best in investigative and commentary journalism, but is also the Texas Observer’s largest fundraiser of the year. Our reader’s commitment to independent, investigative journalism helps keep the Observer going, as we pursue collaboration—with other media outlets in Texas and nationally—over competition, stories that derive power from the recognition that people are experts in their own lives, and investigations that make data public and free for anyone to access.
The 2024 MOLLY Awards Gala
The MOLLY National Journalism Prize gala honors Molly Ivins’ legacy, helps support the publication and reporting produced by the Texas Observer, and awards the best investigative journalism in the country.
These days, Texans miss the words of Molly Ivins. Our legendary editor and columnist enriched the lives of progressive readers. Molly’s voice – sometimes humorous, sometimes angry – was always insightful. Her bluster made many conservatives cower in their boots. Molly wrote: And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.
That’s why there’s the MOLLY Awards, the most important annual fundraiser for Texas Observer, a Texas legend in its own right. The Observer, now in its 70th year, has been telling it like it is since 1954. Whether you’re a long-time supporter or just discovered the Texas Observer, our MOLLY annual journalism prize gala is an opportunity for everyone to come together and celebrate the best in journalism. The MOLLY’s also serve as a critical fundraiser for the Observer, and here in our 70th year of publication, we need our community more than ever to ensure we’re here for another 70 years.
Submissions
Submissions for the 2024 MOLLY Awards are now closed.
Past Winners
2024
Alicia Inez Guzmán, Searchlight New Mexico
2022
Meribah Knight and Ken Armstrong of Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica – Investigative Journalism Prize
Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune – Excellence in Political Commentary/Columns
2021
Katie Engelhart, The California Sunday Magazine – Investigative Journalism Prize
Kyle Whitmire, Alabama Media Group – Excellence in Political Commentary/Columns
2020
Pamela Colloff, ProPublica
2019
Hannah Dreier, ProPublica
2018
Michael Grabell & Howard Berkes, ProPublica/NPR
2017
Shane Bauer, Mother Jones
2016
Joseph Neff, the News & Observer
2015
Esther Kaplan, the Virginia Quarterly Review
2014
Dave Philipps, The Gazette (Colorado Springs)
2013
Sarah Stillman, the New Yorker
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