NYU - New York University
04/14/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/14/2025 05:41
NYU’s Carter Journalism Institute Names Lauren Williams Winner of Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award
Lauren Williams
New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute has named Lauren Williams, a journalist and audio producer, the winner of its 11th Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award.
Williams, a writer and producer for KUOW and NPR's Soundside show, will use the grant to pursue a story on art history in the American South.
The Institute also named Katie Thornton, a print and audio journalist who covers media, infrastructure, and history, as the award's runner-up. She will use the grant to write a story about language and politics.
The Carter Journalism Institute established the award in the fall of 2014 to commemorate the life and work of journalist Matthew Power (1974-2014). Given annually and funded by more than 650 separate donations, it provides $12,500 to an early-career journalist researching an important story that illuminates the human condition. This year's runner-up receives a stipend of $8,000.
"These days, we need in-depth journalism more than ever," says Carter Journalism Professor Ted Conover, a friend of Power's. "At the same time, good work seems harder than ever to publish. Travel is usually our award recipients' main expense; our judging panel also actively lends moral and technical support."
Lauren Williams has reported on the intersection of art and politics for WBUR, Boston's NPR station, and radio programs like All Things Considered and Here & Now. Recently, she wrote about the political history of marriage in the United States for the Signal Award-winning show White Picket Fence and produced an audio documentary about Black avant-garde composers for the Peabody Award-winning program, Afropop Worldwide. She got her start in journalism at D Magazine, Bust Magazine, and The Paris Review.
Williams has degrees from the American University of Paris and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Katie Thornton
Katie Thornton's work has been published in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, National Geographic, 99% Invisible, NPR, BBC, and others. In 2022, she made a Peabody-winning podcast in her closet: "The Divided Dial," with WNYC's On The Media, dove into the history, politics, and economics of conservative talk radio. Thornton has also received a Fulbright Fellowship and grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Thornton has a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and currently teaches a podcasting course at Macalester College.
This year's judges were Conover, Jessica Benko, Robert S. Boynton, Christopher Cox, and Roger Hodge.
The 2023 Power Award winner, Adam Willis, published "North Dakota Wants Your Carbon, But Not Your Climate Science," in the November 13, 2024, edition of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Power was an established freelance writer who contributed to such publications as GQ, Harper's Magazine, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, and The New York Times. He also worked in broadcast journalism. Power was a three-time finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in international reporting. His work was frequently featured in annual anthologies such as Best American Travel Writing and Best American Spiritual Writing. Power died on March 10, 2014, while accompanying the explorer Levison Wood, who was trying to become the first person to walk the entire length of the Nile River.
For details on the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, visit the award page. The application portal for next year's competition will re-open in November 2025.