2020-21 SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition
101 Grand Award - Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year ( Newspapers,Travel Magazines,Travel Coverage in General Magazines,Travel Audio-Radio,Travel Audio-Podcasts and Guides)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Afar Entry Title: Katherine LaGrave Entry Credit: Katherine LaGrave Judge Comment: Katherine LaGrave’s portfolio demonstrates her range from storyteller to service journalist. Her extensive reporting, as captured in the real people who populate her stories, and her contextual history lead to good writing. The sources contribute anecdotes, each of which are stories in themselves, and make a point. Her openings promise rewards to come, and she doesn’t disappoint. She drops in foreshadowing to keep readers from leaving. She uses first person, not just to talk about herself, but to craft a narrative that moves. In her story about visiting the center of North America, she uses humor to report on the competing claims. In her feature on Give Kids the World Village, a place for critically ill children, she uses scenes bursting with description and anecdotes of children who have visited. Through it all, she demonstrates the classic advice from Strunk and White: Make every word count.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: alex pulaski Entry Title: Alex Pulaski Entry Credit: Alex Pulaski Judge Comment: The breadth and depth of Alex Pulaski's portfolio illustrate the power of his ideas and the grace of his writing. He is equally adept at telling readers how to put together a photographic journal of family adventures as he is following John Steinbeck on a journey around the Sea of Cortez. And he is able to successfully marry literature and journalism by letting the work of Steinbeck, Jack London, Willa Cather and others inspire his travels. This is a writer who finds wonder in both the natural world and the literary world and uses his considerable gift of language to share it.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Margie Goldsmith Entry Title: Margie Goldsmith Entry Credit: Margie Goldsmith Judge Comment: Margie Goldsmith writes to inform and entertain. When she visited the Antarctic, she brought readers with her not only to learn about different species of penguins but also to envision them: “Their crests were spiky and black from which bright yellow ‘eyebrows” dangled. They reminded me of Keith Richards.” In Namibia, Goldsmith takes us with her through the creation of scenes vivid with description. We listen to the conversation with a guide through telling dialogue. To create the scenes, she gathers copious detail: “Trudging up a sand dune is like walking in a thick bog.” The dunes, she writes, are marmalade colored. In her essay on using her harmonica to bridge the gap between languages and cultures, she tells of the time some young men were throwing stones toward her. She started playing her harmonica and they stopped and listened. “Music,” she writes, “is a universal language.”
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Sarah Khan Entry Title: Sarah Khan Entry Credit: Sarah Khan Judge Comment: Sarah Khan has found a sweet spot that allows her writing to be stylish and sophisticated, as well as simple and straightforward. Happily for the reader, she focuses her talent on cultural traditions that are unfamiliar to many of us. Readers get hooked on charming narratives about Ramadan and Zanzibar pizza because the writer is equally enchanted. For readers, the stories are satisfying and memorable.
