2020-21 SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition
115 Personal Comment ( Newspapers,Travel Magazines,Travel Coverage in General Magazines,Travel Audio-Radio,Travel Audio-Podcasts and Guides)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Caroline Van Hemert Entry Title: What the caribou taught me about being together, and apart Entry Credit: Caroline Van Hemert Judge Comment: Far more than a journey from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, Caroline Van Hemert’s account becomes an extraordinary allegory about community, resiliency and mortality. Hemert discovers far more than Arctic beauty during her six-month journey into the wild; her indefatigable reporting, precise description and transcendent observation reveal a new life path – and a masterwork in travel writing.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Erin Byrne Entry Title: Our Ravaged Lady Entry Credit: Erin Byrne Judge Comment: Erin Byrne’s beautifully rendered reflection on the burning of Notre Dame is both melancholic and hopeful, grand yet intimate. Like the iconic cathedral itself, Byrne’s prose is soaring and timeless. While Paris mourned the burning of Notre Dame, Byrne fashioned a heavenly meditation from its ashes.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Travel + Leisure Entry Title: The Writer and the World Entry Credit: Aatish Taseer Judge Comment: Aatish Taseer bravely steps onto the third rail of travel writing’s age-old conflicts: Whose story is it? During a time of disputed and disrupted narratives, Taseer’s persuasively elegant paean to the invaluable “outsider” point of view—around race, gender, sexual orientation, class – is a gift to a conversation that is just getting started.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Tyrone Beason Entry Title: A Black reporter's road trip to the inauguration -- and a search for America's soul Entry Credit: Tyrone Beason Judge Comment: Tyrone Beason’s deeply reflective account of his 600-mile journey from Charleston, South Carolina, to Washington, D.C., is brimming with joy and optimism. Through it all, Beason delivers a beautifully insightful and complex portrait of our citizenry – young and old, black and white – and all proudly American.
