51st Annual Competition Fellowship Winners Announced for 2016

For Immediate Release Contact: 202-246-3751

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Top journalists will pursue topics ranging from the influx of global investors in Africa to the environmental siege confronting poor Californians as the newest recipients of an Alicia Patterson Foundation grant. The foundation, in its fifth decade, funds American journalism’s oldest writing fellowships.

The annual fellowships are designed to foster independent in-depth reporting on local, 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 three panels of judges, as well as submitting detailed proposals, examples of past work, and references.

More than 338 reporters, editors, and photographers have won Alicia Patterson fellowships since the foundation was established in 1965.

This is the first year a fellow will be named for Cissy Patterson, who was Alicia’s aunt and editor of the Washington Times-Herald. The fellowship is given to a journalist pursuing a topic in science or the environment. Brooke Borel, a science writer from New York City, was chosen as the inaugural Cissy Patterson fellow. She will be examining alternatives to pesticides.

The trustees of the foundation named one fellow in honor of Josephine Patterson Albright, a former Newsday columnist, sister of Alicia Patterson and a major benefactor of the foundation. The Josephine Patterson Albright fellow is Katherine Corcoran, the Associated Press’ Mexico City bureau chief, who is examining press freedom in Mexico.

For program information and applications for the 52nd annual competition, contact:
Alicia Patterson Foundation
1100 Vermont Ave. NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 393-5995
Email: info@aliciapatterson.org
Applications may be downloaded at: www.aliciapatterson.org

Applications must be submitted by October 1, 2016.

Final Judges for the 51st Annual Competition:

Sandy Close – founder, Pacific News Service and New America Media
Christian Davenport – Washington Post reporter and APF fellow 2007
Mark Feldstein – Philip Merrill College of Journalism professor, University of Maryland, and APF Fellow 2009
Randall Hyman – science reporter and APF Fellow 2015
Tara McKelvey – writer for BBC News, Newsweek/Daily Beast and APF Fellow 2010