ASJA Award Recipients
Outstanding Author Awards
Until 1999, these awards were conferred upon ASJA members whose nonfiction trade books, either alone or added to a body of work, were deemed highly significant. In 1999, this award was replaced by the Outstanding Book Award: General Nonfiction.
1998: Robert Kanigel, The One Best Way
1997: Kathryn Black In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History
1996: Bernard Asbell, The Pill: A Biography of the Drug that Changed the World
1995: Alan Levy,The Weisenthal File
1994: Robin Marantz Henig, The Dancing Matrix: Voyages Along the Viral Frontier.
1993: Victoria Secunda, Women and Their Fathers: The Sexual and Romantic Impact of the First Man In Your Life
1992: Nancy Rubin, Isabella, Queen of Castile
1990: Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
1989: Jonathan Kozol, Rachel and her Children
1988: Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: People, Politics and the AIDS Epidemic
1987: Kitty Kelley, His Way
1986: John McPhee for his body of work
1985: Flora Rheta Schreiber,The Shoemaker
1984: Isaac Asimov "because of the dramatic impact his work has had on a significant number of Americans and because he has made the world of science understandable, palatable, and enjoyable."
1983: Alvin Toffler "for his original thinking about our future, manifested in work published over the past two decades."
1982: Betty Friedan, The Second Stage
1981: Norman Cousins, Anatomy of an Illness and body of work
1980: Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror
1979: Theodore H. White
1978: Alex Haley, Roots
Arlenes
The Arlenes: Articles That Make a Difference (given annually) and Books That Make a Difference (given in 2007, 2010 and 2013)
2007: Article: Melba Newsome, "True Crimes, False Confesions", published in O, the Oprah Magzine, Arpil 2006
2007: Article: Lisa Armstrong, "It Takes a Village", published in Essence, October 2006
2007: Article: Christine Larson, "A New Way to Ask, 'How Green Is My Conscience?", published in The New York Times, June 25,2006
2007: Book: Katherine Eban, Dangerous Doses
2006: Article: Miriam Raftery, Monkey Business: A Look at Vote-Counting Mischief and the Potential for More, published in City Beat (San Diego), October 19, 2005
2006: Article: Michele Wojciechowski, For the Love of Laurie, published in Family Circle April 19, 2005
2005: Article: Bob Cooper, Rich in Books, published in San Francisco Cronicle Magazine
2005: Article: Kim Kavin, The Crisis Cops, published in Northeast, Sunday magazine of The Hartford Courant
Outstanding Book Award: General Nonfiction
These awards are conferred upon ASJA members whose nonfiction trade books, either alone or added to a body of work, are deemed highly significant.
2007: Edwin Black, Internal Combustion
2007: Victor Chase, Shattered Nerves (Honorable mention)
2006: Charles Henderson, Goodnight Saigon
2006: Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Reluctant Spiritualist (Honorable mention)
2005: Robin Marantz Henig, Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution
2005: Kathryn Black, Mothering Without a Map (Honorable mention)
2004: Kristin Ohlson, Stalking the Divine
2004: Andrea King Coller, Still with Me: A Daughter's Journey of Love and Loss (Honorable Mention)
2004: Steve Kemper, Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World (Honorable Mention)
2003: Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation
2002: Erich Hoyt, Creatures of the Deep (Firefly Books)
2002: Bruce Henderson, Fatal North (Honorable Mention)
2001: Cathy Crimmins, Where is the Mango Princess?
2000: None
1999: None
Outstanding Book Award: Service, Self-Help, Collaborative, or Specialty
These awards are conferred upon ASJA members whose nonfiction trade books, either alone or added to a body of work, are deemed highly significant.
2007: Allen and Linda Anderson, Rescued, Saving Animals from Disaster
2007: Carol Evans, This is How We Do It, The Working Mother's Manifesto (Honorable mention)
2006: Catherine Wald, The Resilient Writer
2006: Judi Culbertson and Marj Decker, Scaling Down
2005: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Pen on Fire
2004: Betty Rothbart, Healthy Teens, Body and Soul: A Parent's Complete Guide to Adolescent Health
2004: Jennier Lawler, Dojo Wisdom: 100 Simple Ways to Become a Stronger, Calmer, More Courageous Person
2002: Dianne Partie Lange et al, Informed Decisions
2001: Michael Smolensky, Ph.D., and Lynne Lamberg, The Body Clock Guide to Better Health
2000: When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads by Dr. Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein (Harper Perrenial)
2000: License to Steal by Anonymous and Timothy Harper (HarperBusiness)
1999: Susan K. Golant and Rosalynn Carter, Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers (Times Books, 1998)
Outstanding Book Award: Children's
2006: Rachel Dickinson, Tools of Navigation
2004: Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright
2002: Andrea Warren, Surviving Hitler
Outstanding Article Awards
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
1991: None
1990: Steve Fishman,, "Skull's Angels," Rolling Stone
1989: Robert Kanigel, "An Ordinary Miracle," Hippocrates
1988: Laurence B. Cherry, "My Father's Last Year", Glamour
1988: Kenneth F. Englade, "The Battle Over Secular Humanism," Southern
1987: Rena Dictor LeBlanc, "The Mechanical Boy Who Found His Heart," Reader's Digest
1987: Claudia Dreifus, "Rodrigo's Last Trip: The Fiery Death of a Young Chilean Exile," Mother Jones
1986: Joan Barthel, "Jimmy," McCall's
1985: Steve Fishman, "Brain Surgery: A Patient's Story," Science Digest
1984: Bonnie Remsberg, "Beneath the Cloud", Family Circle
1983: Sally Wendkos Olds, "Do You want Your Mother to Die?", McCall
1983: Morton Hunt, "Research Through Deception", New York Times Magazine
1983: Gloria Hochman, "Living with Alzheimer's," Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
1983: Claire Safran, "The War on Toxic Waste", Woman's Day
1982: Morton Sontheimer, "Memories of a Small Bomb," Newsweek
1981: Michael Frome, "The Ungreening of our National Parks," Travel Agent and National Parks
1980: Ted J. Rakstis, "The Poisoning of Michigan," Reader's Digest
1979: Betty Friedan
1978: None
Outstanding Article Awards: Business/Technology
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2007: Michael Fitzgerald, "Grand Plans," Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, October 6, 2006
2007: Alison Stein Wellner, "Gary Heavin is on a Mission from God," Inc., October 2006 (Honorable mention)
2006: Craig Canine, "Building a Better Banana," Smithsonian Magazine, October 2005
2006: Melba Newsome, "He Took On the WholePower Tool Industry," Inc. Magazine, July 2005
2004: Anita Bartholomew, "Balance," MBA Jungle, October/November 2003
2004: Claire Tristram, "Supercomputing Resurrected," Technology Review, February 2003 (Honorable Mention)
2003: Claire Tristram, "Data Extinction," Technology Review, October 2002
2002: Claire Tristram, "It's Time for a Clockless Chip," Technology Review, October 2001
Outstanding Article Awards: Personal Essay
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2007: Christie Aschwanden, "One Daughter, One Dad, Two Bikes," Health June 2006
2007: Lisa Collier Cool, "Rescuing Rosalie," Ladies' Home Journal September and October, 2006
2006: Janine Latus, "All the Wrong Men," O, TheOprah Magazine, October 2005
2004: Marian Sander, "Listening to Zebras," Washington Post, June 3, 2003
1999: Judith Sachs, "The End of My Mother," Death & Dying, March 1998
1998: Florence Williams, "Benched," New Republic, November 10, 1997
1997: Sherry Suib Cohen, "In the Name of Tradition," New Woman
1994: Philip A. Alper, "My Nursing Home Patients Come To Me," Medical Economics
1994: Mary Augusta Rodgers, "Home at the End of the Road," Detroit Free Press Magazine
1993: Maxine Rock, "Arthritis and Exercise: Maybe It's Time to Get Moving," Arthritis Today
1993: Mary Alice Kellogg, "The Search for My Father," Glamour
1992: Richard Bode, "To Climb the Wind," Sail
1992: Mitch Finley, "Bang," Notre Dame Magazine
Outstanding Article Awards: Reporting on a Significant Topic
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2007: Jonathen Green, "Hooked on the Gold Rush," The Mail, July 30, 2006
2006: Robin Marantz Henig, "Will We Ever Arrive at the Good Death?," The New York Times Magazine, August 7, 2005
2006: John Rosengren, "To Hell and Back," Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, January 2005
2005: Salley Shannon, "The New Hazardon the Highway," Good Housekeeping, May 2004
2004: Gloria Hochman, "Pain," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 16, 2003
2003: Melba Newsome, "The Devil You Know," Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2002
2002: Sara Solovitch, "Citizen Scientists," Wired, September 2001
2001: Lisa Collier Cool, "Could You Get Hooked On This Pill", Self (Honorable Mention)
2001: Timothy Harper, "Shoot to Kill", The Atlantic Monthly
1999: Steve Kemper, "This Land Is Your Land" Yankee, September 1998
1997: Heather Millar, "Log Me a River" The Atlantic Monthly
1996: Lisa Collier Cool "Mangled Care" Penthouse
1996: Florence Williams, "Polygamy in America" North American Review
1995: Sally Wendkos Olds, "Marathon Woman," Pennsylvania Gazette
1995: Edward Oxford, "D-Day Plus 50 Years," American History
1994: Thomas Bedell, "Old Glory: The Seneca's Search for a Past," Destination Discovery
1994: Steve Fishman, "Love Her to Death," Details
1993: Lance Frazer, "The Treasure of Healing Knowledge," The Student Lawyer
1993: Katharine Davis Fishman, "Problem Adoptions," The Atlantic Monthly
1992: Robert Kanigel, "Downs and Ups," Johns Hopkins Magazine
1992: Edward Oxford, "Pearl Harbor," American History Illustrated
Outstanding Article Awards: Service
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2007: Christine Larson, "Taking Care of Mom and Dad", U.S. News and World Report, November 19, 2006
2007: Russell Wild, "Your Take-Charge Guide to Affordable Health Care", AARP: The Magazine, July/August 2006 (Honorable mention)
2006: Karen Hammond, "There's Still a Girl in There", Family Circle, May 17, 2005
2005: Christie Aschwanden, "The Kitchen Comes Clean", Health, July/August 2004
2005: Richard Laliberte, "Time of Your Life", Best Life, November/December 2004 (Honorable mention)
2004: Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, "What a Difference Five Years Makes", More, September, 2003
2003: Cheryl Reed, "Monastic Experience: Finding a Hermitage of One's Own", Poets & Writers, May 2002
2003: Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, "A Place for Us", Woman's Day, June 4, 2002 (Honorable Mention)
2002: Sally Stich, "The Most Important Discussion You Must Have", New Choices, April 2001
2001: Michele Meyer, "The Gift of Health", Remedy Magazine
2000: Florence Williams, Near to the Ground: The Environmental Report Card," (Outside Magazine, April 1999)
1998: Susan K. Perry, "The Essential Guide to L.A. Schools", Los Angeles, April 1997
1997: Michele Meyer, "The Fine Art of Packing" National Geographic Traveler
1996: Victoria Secunda, "When Your Adult Child Disappoints You" New Choices
1995: Victoria Secunda, "Giving or Taking Family Money? Mastering the Art of Family Diplomacy," New Choices
Outstanding Article Awards: Profile
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2007: Sarah Richards, "Master of the Guillotine" The Walrus Magazine, May 2006
2006: Michelle Nijhuis, "Madame Butterlfy" Sierra Magazine, October 2005
2006: Jessica Seigel, "Secrets of the Bonobo Sisterhood" Ms. Magazine, Spring 2005
2005: Idelle Davidson, "The Shy Savant" Los Angeles Magazine, June 13, 2004
2004: Dan Ferber, "The Man Who Mistook His Girlfriend for a Robot" Popular Science, September 2003
2002: Florence Williams, "Roquefort Files" Outside, June 2001
1999: Ellen Parlapiano, "Helping Kids Cope With Grief" Child, February 1998
1998: Jessica Seigel, "'The Zone' Diet Wars" Los Angeles, February, 1997
Outstanding Article Awards: First Person
These awards honor members whose articles, produced on a freelance basis, have demonstrated excellence.
2005: Rebecca Skloot, "When Pets Attack", New York Magazine, October 11, 2004
2003: Paul Perry, "X Marks the Spot", National Geographic Adventure, March 2002 (Honorable Mention)
2003: Mary Collins, "Don't Have a Seat", Washington Post, March 5, 2002
2002: Andrea Cooper, "Is This is Madness", Hope, Spring 2001
2001: Andrea Cooper, "Doing the Frango", Salon.com
2000: Claire Tristram, "Why I Have Never Seen the Mona Lisa Smile" by Claire Tristram (Trips Magazine, April 1999)
2000: Andrea Warren, "The Angels of Vietnam" by (The World & I, May 1999)
June Roth: Medical Article
The generosity of the late Fred Roth has made possible the establishment of the June Roth Memorial Fund in honor of his wife, the 31st president of the Society, who died in 1990. Income generated by the fund provides money awards to ASJA members for freelance articles and trade books representing exceptional achievement in the field of health and medical writing.
2007: Lisa Collier Cool, "Saving the Smallest Patients", Good Housekeeping, July 2006
2006: Lisa Collier Cool, "Could You Be Forced to Have A C-section?", Baby Talk Magazine, May 2005
2006: Linda Marsa, "Danger at the ER", Ladies' Home Journal, October 2005
2005: Robin Marantz Henig, "The Quest to Forget", The New York Times Magazines, April 4, 2004
2005: Tamara Eberlein, "Blood-Clotting Disorders", Redbook, June 2004 (Honorable mention)
2004: Melba Newsome, "Genetic Roulette", O, The Oprah Magazine, August 2003
2003: Lisa Collier Cool, "Saving Sophie", Self, December 2002
2002: Jack El-Hai, "The Lobotomist", The Washington Post magazine, February 4, 2001
2001: Marian Sandmaier, "The Breakthrough", The Family Therapy Networker
2000: Beryl Lieff Benderly, "Gene Tests: Are They for You?" (InTouch Magazine, December 1999)
1999: Richard and Joyce Wolkomir, "The Quality of Mercy" Smithsonian, April 1998
1998: Tamara Eberlein, "Too Many Babies? The Dangerous Rise of Multiple Births" Redbook , August 1996
1996: Lisa Collier Cool, "Mangled Care" Penthouse
1995: William Ecenbarger, "Intimate Strangers," Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
1994: Janice Hopkins Tanne, "Free At Last," New York
1994: Gloria Hochman, "Prisoners of Memory," Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
1993: Robin Marantz Henig, The Flu Pandemic: A Once and Future Menace," The New York Times Magazine
June Roth: Medical Book
2006: Katherine Eban, "Dangerous Doses"
2006: Cheryl Dellasega, "The Starving Family" (Honorable mention)
2003: Sarah Wernick with Claudia I. Henschke and Peggy McCarthy, Lung Cancer: Myths, Facts and Choices
2000: Victoria Secunda, When Madness Comes Home (Hyperion)
1997: Kathryn Black, In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History
1994: Robin Marantz Henig, The Dancing Matrix: Voyages Along the Viral Frontier (Knopf)
Robert C. Anderson Award
This award, first presented in 1992, honors an individual, a magazine editor, book editor, or other purchaser of writers' work; a teacher; or a mentor who has the unusual qualities of character possessed by our late colleague Bob Anderson. This award is for someone who goes far out of his or her way to support and encourage writers in their work, displaying outstanding humaneness, compassion, and generosity. The individual need not be a member of the Society, but only ASJA members may make nominations.
1999: Bernard Asbell
1998: None
1997: None
1996: Murray Teigh Bloom
1995: Dan Carlinsky
1994: Marvin J. Wolf
1993: none
1992: Melvin (Bud) Gardner
Career Achievement Award
2007: Claudia Dreifus
2006: Gloria Hochman
2005: Alvin and Heidi Toffler
2004: Ruth Winter
2003: Hal Higdon
2002: Bonnie Remsburg
2000: None
1999: None
1998: Ruth Gruber
1997: Betty Friedan
1996: none
1995: Murray Teigh Bloom
1994: Booton Herndon
1993: Norman M. Lobsenz
1992: Charles L. (Chuck) Cadieux
Donald Robinson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism
A bequest from Donald Robinson, the third president of the Society, who died in 1991, has made possible the establishment of the Donald Robinson Memorial Fund, generating income which provides an annual money award to an ASJA member who has published an article, produced on a freelance basis, representing exceptional achievement in the field of investigative reporting or expos‚.
2006: Salley Shannon, "Witness on Board", Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 17, 2005
2004: Trish Riley, "Toxic Schools", South Florida Parenting, April, 2003
2004: Claudia Dreifus, "Women On Death Row", Ms. Magazine, Spring, 2003 (honorable mention)
2003: Edwin Black, "Final Solutions: How IBM Helped Automate the Nazi Death Machine in Poland", Village Voice, March 27, 2002
1999: None
1998: None
1997: Lisa Collier Cool, "Welcome to Their Nightmare" Penthouse
1996: John F. Wasik, "Fraud in the Funeral Industry" Consumers Digest
1995: Dan Hurley, "Imminent Danger," Psychology Today
1994: Robin Warshaw, "The Shame of America's Board and Care Homes," New Choices
1993: None
One Small Step Award
(recognizing a modest but commendable move)
1989: McGraw-Hill, for instituting a continuing program designed to improve editor-author relations
1987: Farrar, Straus and Giroux for its decision to pay authors royalties on remaindered books
Special Awards
1987: Paulette Cooper (for Scientology fight)
1987: Bern Keating (for Copyright fight)
1986: Dr. Judith Becker and Ellen Levine (then editor-in-chief of Woman's Day ), members of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (the "Meese Commission"), for their courage and pursuit of truth in dissenting from the commission's report.
Special Service Award
1986: Glen Evans, for editing ASJA's The Complete Guide to Writing Nonfiction
1985: Dorothy Beach, for directing ASJA's Dial-a-Writer Service
Special Category Award
1982: Viking Penguin for providing authors with free liability insurance.
Lifetime Award
1987: Maurice Zolotow
Magazine of the Year
1990: In Health (formerly Hippocrates), Kiwanis
1989: Connoisseur
1988: New Yorker
1987: Glamour, Smithsonian
1986: none
1985: American Way
1984: Ladies' Home Journal
1983: Esquire, Working Mother
1981: Omni
1980: Parents, Geo
Editor of the Year
1998: Editor of the Year Award discontinued
1997: Maureen McFadden, Woman's Day
1996: David Sendler, New Choices
Special Mention
1987: Southern
Conscience-in-Media Award
1994: Anna Elisabeth Rosmus, real-life heroine of the film The Nasty Girl
1992: Richard Behar, associate editor, Time and author, "Scientology: The Cult of Greed" (Time , May 6, 1991)
1992: Paulette Cooper, ASJA member and author, The Scandal of Scientology
1986: Jonathan Kozol
1981: Jacopo Timerman, former Argentinean editor-publisher
1981: Erwin Knoll, editor, The Progressive
1978: Donald Woods, South African expatriate journalist
1977: Investigative Reporters and Editors
1977: Don Bolles (posthumous award)
1976: I.F. Stone
1975: Jerald F. terHorst
Open Book Award
1990: "The NEA Nine," the first nine to turn down grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in protest against the strings of censorship attached to those grants. The nine: New York Shakespeare Festival, New School for Social Research, Paris Review, Gettysburg Review, Theater for the New City, Bella Lewitzky (choreographer and director), Ferne Ackerman (choreographer), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, University of Iowa Press
1989: Viking Penguin for publishing, and members of the American Booksellers Association for continuing to sell, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses despite extremist threats
1989: American Library Association, for exposing and opposing the FBI's nefarious "library awareness program"
1984: People for the American Way
1984: Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association
1984: National Coalition Against Censorship
1984: Media Coalition
1983: Teresa Burnau, high-school teacher
1983: Rosanne Stead, bookstore manager
1983: Nat Hentoff, Village Voice columnist
1983: Michael Sheck, high-school student
1983: Leo Melrose, librarian
1983: Faith Brunson, department-store book buyer
Extraordinary Service Award
2007: Claire Safran
2006: Brett Harvey
Notes on Awards
1991: No awards were given, owing to a reorganization of the categories and calendar.
In 1992 new awards were added and old ones were redesigned. The Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award, first presented in 1992, honors an individual who has the qualities of character possessed by ASJA's late colleague Bob Anderson. The recipient is someone who goes out of his or her way to support and encourage writers in their work. In 1993 two new awards endowed by former members of the Society were inaugurated to recognize exceptional achievement in the fields of investigative reporting and medical journalism. In 1994 ASJA established the Editor of the Year Award to honor the good work of sensitive, intelligent editors that too often goes unrewarded.
The Outstanding Article awards were divided into two categories, expanded to three in 1995 and four in 1998: first person, essay, or personal-experience; reporting on a significant topic; service article (advice, guidance, how-to); profiles.
