American Society of Journalists and Authors Names 2026 Awards Winners for Articles and Content Writing

APRIL 22,2026

CONTACT: ASJA staff, asjaoffice@asja.org

New York, New York (April 22, 2026) – The American Society of Journalists and Authors, the nation’s leading professional organization of nonfiction freelance writers, announced the winners of the ASJA Awards for articles and content writing.

The ASJA Awards recognize exceptional nonfiction freelance writing published in 2025. Awards added this year included a special category on writing about AI, and cultural criticism.

“The winners and honorable mentions of the 2026 ASJA Awards for articles and content are outstanding, showing the breadth and excellence of work by top independent writers,” said Richard Eisenberg, ASJA Awards co-chair. “We’re also enormously grateful to the judges who spent so much time and effort choosing the honorees.”

Independent writers, including ASJA members and non-members, submitted approximately 500 articles and content writing works in more than 20 categories, including a special category on writing about AI. More than 70 writers served as judges to choose winners and honorable mentions in each category.

Full details on the winners and honorable mentions, along with judges’ comments, appear on the ASJA website: see the Awards page. The winners of the 2025 ASJA Awards for books will be announced in May.

Winners of ASJA Awards With Prize Money

Four of the 2026 ASJA Awards for articles come with prize money. The winners and honorable mentions of those awards are:

Special Category: Writing about AI, $500

• Winner: “Chasing Every Cure” by JoAnn Greco in The Pennsylvania Gazette
• Honorable Mention: AI and Judaism series, The Perils and Promise of AI (“Where is AI taking us? The path to Eden, or the road to Armageddon?,” “As AI charges ahead, Jewish thinkers are falling behind” and “Jewish institutions slowly incorporate AI but risk falling behind”) by Dan Friedman in The Jewish News of Northern California

The Arlenes (Articles That Make a Difference), $1,000

• Winner: “The Native-Led Forensics Lab Dedicated to Solving Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Cases” by Kate Nelson in Atmos

Donald Robinson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism, $1,000

• Winner: “Nowhere to Go: Inside the Texas Board Home System, Where Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Are Widespread” by Ottavia Spaggiari in In These Times with Type Investigations
• Honorable Mention: “How Hotels, Once a Last Resort, Became New York’s Answer to Homelessness” by Spencer Norris in New York Focus with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and ProPublica

June Roth Memorial Award for Outstanding Medical Journalism, $1,000

• Winner: “How cancer cells travel to new tissues and take hold” by Amber Dance in Knowable magazine
• Honorable Mention (tie): “What’s behind the gilded doors of Aegis senior living?” by Conor Kelley in TheStranger.com, and “What RFK Jr. Gets Wrong About Autism” by Emily P.G. Erickson in The Dispatch

Also noteworthy: four independent writers were recognized for more than one award; all of them are ASJA members: Robin Catalano, Andrea Cooper, Amber Dance, and Tara Haelle.

In addition, four publications published more than one award-winning piece: Longreads and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project each published four, and The New York Times and Knowable each published two.

Other ASJA Awards Winners

Here are the other 2026 ASJA Awards winners and honorable mentions:

B2B Content

• Winner: “Hope and History in Verse” by Adrienne Samuels Gibbs in Council Chronicle

B2C Content

• Winner: “Prioritizing Women’s Health” by Christina Hernandez Sherwood in the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health publication
• Honorable Mention: “Craft Whiskey Comes Home to the Rockies” by Daliah Singer in Aprés

Business Writing

• Winner: “Inside the Ludwig Drums Factory” by Andrea Cooper in Oxford American
• Honorable Mention: “Automation in Retail Is Even Worse Than You Thought” by Ann Larson co-published by Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Nation

Cultural Criticism

• Winner: “20 Years Later: Little Brother, ‘The Minstrel Show,” “30 Years Later: Groove Theory, ‘Groove Theory’” and “40 Years Later: Sade, ‘Promise’” by Hanif Abdurraqib in Longreads

Environment/Climate/Sustainability 

• Winner: “The Fish That Climbed a Mountain” by Alex Brown in Longreads
• Honorable Mention: “Can Mussels Save Philadelphia’s Waterways?” by Cari Shane in Philadelphia magazine

Excellence in Reporting

• Winner (tie): “There Will Be No Mercy” by Drew Philp in The Atavist, and “Is This the Hardest Physical Contest in the World?”by Kevin Maurer in The Atlantic
• Honorable Mention (tie): “Holly Hill Under Scrutiny Again” and “Despite Years of Safety Violations, Holly Hill Hospital Looks to Treat More Patients” by Taylor Knopf in North Carolina Health News, and“A School District Singled Out By Trump Says It Teaches ‘Whole Truth History’” by Steven Yoder in The Hechinger Report

First-Person Essay

• Winner: “Beloved Bother” by Hannah Engler Harvey in Longreads
• Honorable Mention (tie): “Men Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back,” by Rachel Drucker in The New York Times, and “At the Knee” by Tod Goldberg in Alta

Food and Drink

• Winner: “At This Harlem Chef’s Table, the Rosh Hashana Menu is Full of Ethiopian Spices,” by Andrea Cooper in Smithsonian Magazine
• Honorable Mention: “Cutting back on ultra-processed foods sounds easy. The truth is much more complicated.” by Tara Haelle in Men’s Health

Health

• Winner:  “Sex Hormones Are Brain Hormones.  What Does That Mean for Treating Brain Diseases?” by Rachel E. Gross in The New York Times
• Honorable Mention: “We Are All Genetic Mosaics” by Amber Dance in Knowable Magazine

How-To Service

• Winner: “Your Disaster Preparation Toolkit” by Kimberly Lankford in Kiplinger magazine
• Honorable Mention: “How to support pet pantries — and why it’s so important right now” by Jen Reeder in AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association website)

Lifestyle

• Winner: “Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ Was Partly Inspired by a Real-Life Event” by Christopher Klein in History.com
• Honorable Mention: “With 500 Species, Long Island Is a Birders’ Paradise” by John Hanc in Newsday

Long-From Content

• Winner: “The Machine in the Garden” by Jordan Blumetti in Oxford American with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Opinion/Op-Eds

• Winner: “EPA Staff Stand Firm as Administration Lobs Cuts, Baseless Accusations and Cruelty,” “A Cruel Tradeoff Building the ‘Amazon of Deportation’ While Tearing Down Health and Human Services” and “President Trump’s Cabinet of Polluters, Frackers and Climate Crisis Deniers Rushes to Gut Protections” by Derrick Z. Jackson in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ The Equation
• Honorable Mention (tie): “The Young Republicans Chat Echoes the Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 60s” by Michael Franklin in The Contrarian, and “The school board was the testing ground for the fall of democracy” by Nicole Carr in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Personal Platform

• Winner: From Art 2 Zen Substack pieces (“Doodle Your Way to a Calmer, More Present You,”  “The Art of Letting Go” and “Breaking the Fear of Creative Expression”) by Rodika Tollefson
• Honorable Mention: Bloom Anywhere pieces on Kit.com (“What a Swimsuit Taught Me About Facing My Fears,” “This Is Going to Be Uncomfortable” and “It’s Time to Talk About the Friendship Recession”) by Gwen Moran

Profiles

• Winner: “14,445 and Counting” by Christa Hillstrom in The Atavist
• Honorable Mention: “Get Me to the Church on Time” by Tom Hallman Jr. in Reader’s Digest

Reported Essay

• Winner: “Will Cuts in Rural Programs Leave the Same Lasting Wounds as the 2008 Financial Crisis?” by Michelle Polizzi in Barn Raiser with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project
• Honorable Mention: “My daughter’s health was a mystery. The answer was on the other side of the world” by Asha Dore in The Guardian

Science

• Winner: “Grave Mistakes: The History and Future of Chile’s ‘Disappeared’” by Fletcher Reveley in Undark
• Honorable Mention: “Mixing Is the Heartbeat of Deep Lakes. At Crater Lake, It’s Slowing Down.” by Rachel Nuwer in Quanta Magazine

Social Change

• Winner: “Who will feed Americans after Trump’s cuts? This food pantry is stepping up.” by Elaine Appleton Grant in The Guardian
• Honorable Mention: “Return to sender: The censorship battle playing out in Wisconsin prisons” by Jeff Oloizia in Madison magazine

Technology

• Winner: “Uncanny Testimony” by Benjamin Charles Germain Lee in Longreads

Trade

• Winner: “‘Symptom Invalidation’ in Clinically Uncertain Diagnoses Can Leave Lasting Mental Health Harms” by Tara Haelle in Medscape Medical News 
• Honorable Mention: “Truth, Noise, and Nonsense in Medicine” by Rita Colorito in WSMA Reports/Washington State Medical Association

Travel

• Winner (tie): “Final destinations: What happens when the dead go traveling” by Blane Bachelor in CNN Travel, and “Traveling Solo? Pair Up With an International Greeter” by Wendy Helfenbaum in Next Avenue 
• Honorable Mention: “Indigenous tourism is thriving in Canada — here’s why” by Robin Catalano in National Geographic

Wellness, Fitness & Sports

• Winner: “In Quebec, Ice Canoeing Turns Frozen Rivers Into Adventure Playgrounds” by Sharael Kolberg in Matador Network 
• Honorable Mention: “In Belize, Maya Descendants Are Reviving an Ancient, Sacred Ballgame” by Robin Catalano in Smithsonian Magazine

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About ASJA

Since 1948, the American Society of Journalists and Authors has been North America’s premier organization of professional freelance nonfiction writers. ASJA members write books, journalism and content marketing and have met ASJA’s objective standards of professional achievement by publishing with national magazines, publishers and clients. As First Amendment and right-to-freelance advocates, ASJA stands up for writers’ rights and offers extensive networking and educational opportunities that benefit members and the freelance writing profession as a whole. ASJA believes in diversity and inclusion and actively works to attract members from all backgrounds and experience levels while continuing to emphasize excellence in nonfiction writing. Learn more at www.asja.org.