2021 Excellence in Religion Reporting Awards

Cassels Award for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Small Newspapers

Wyatt Massey, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Mid-Sized Newspapers

Holly Meyer, The Tennessean

Excellence in Religion Reporting at Large Newspapers & Wire Services

First Place: Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times
Second Place: Ian Lovett, The Wall Street Journal
Third Place: Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post

Excellence in Religion Reporting at Online-Only News Outlets

First Place: Dan Stockman, Global Sisters Report
Second Place: Ari Feldman, The Forward
Third Place: Paul Glader and Michael Ray Smith, Religion Unplugged

Religion Story of the Year

First Place: Britta Lotking and Sam Adler-Bell, Jewish Currents
Second Place: Elizabeth Dias and Ryan Christopher Jones, The New York Times
Third Place: Paul Glader, Michael Ray Smith and Micah Danney, Religion Unplugged

Supple Award for Excellence in Feature Writing

First Place: Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times
Second Place: Emma Green, The Atlantic
Third Place: Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times

Gerald A. Renner Award for Excellence in Enterprise Religion Reporting

First Place: Peter Clowney, John DeLore, Abigail Keel, Ash Sanders, Sarah Ventre and Amy Westervelt, Unfinished: Short Creek podcast
Second Place: Abigail Pogrebin and Judi Rudoren, The Forward
Third Place: Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times

Excellence in Religion Commentary

First Place: Kaya Oakes for work at The Revealer, Religion News Service and America magazine
Second Place: Tia Noelle Pratt for work at Commonweal, National Catholic Reporter and The Revealer
Third Place: Rebecca Epstein-Levi for work at Bitch Media and The Revealer

Excellence in Religion News Analysis

First Place: Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Second Place: Barbara Sostaita, Bitch magazine
Third Place: Sarah Ngu, Religion & Politics

Excellence in Short Religion Video

Hannah Graber, USA TODAY

Excellence in Photography: Single Image

Alexandra Radu, Religion Unplugged

Excellence in Photography: Gallery

First Place: The Associated Press Photography Staff
Second Place: Jessi Wardarski, The Associated Press

Excellence in Magazine Non-Daily Newspaper Awards

First Place: Emma Green, The Atlantic
Second Place: John Beck, Moment magazine
Third Place: Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle

Excellence in Overall Magazine Religion Coverage

The Revealer

Outstanding Religion Documentary

“Air Land & Sea: The Center of Portugal” by Jewish Life Television (Brad Pomerance, Jon McCandless, Danny O’Brien and Kevin Wegener)

Outstanding Religion Story in a Television News Magazine Newscast

“Conspiracy to Massacre: Anti-Semitism in America” by Al Jazeera English (Laila Al-Arian, Josh Rushing, Anna Therese Day, Warwick Meade, Erik Ljung, Joe Vaneeckhout, Paige Rushing, Victor Suarez, Omar Mullick and Darya Marchenkova)

Outstanding Religion News Story in a National/Cable Television Newscast

“CBS Sunday Morning: Block by Block” by CBS Sunday Morning (Lee Cowan, Dustin Stephens, Carol A. Ross and Rand Morrision)

Excellence in Religion Podcast Reporting

First Place: Unfinished: Short Creek by Peter Clowney, John DeLore, Abigail Keel, Ash Sanders, Sarah Ventre and Amy Westervelt
Second Place: Quick to Listen by Morgan Lee and Ted Olsen

Excellence for Nonfiction Religion Book

First Place: Katherine Stewart, “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism”
Second Place: Krithika Varagur, “The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project”
Third Place: Robert P. Jones, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity”