2025 Excellence in Religion Reporting Awards


Religion Story of the Year

First Place: Sam Kestenbaum, Harper’s Magazine
Second Place: Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times
Third Place: Luis Andres Henao, The Associated Press

Excellence in Religion Reporting at Large Newspapers & Wire Services

First Place: Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times
Second Place: Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post
Third Place: Deepa Bharath, The Associated Press

Excellence in Religion Reporting at Small and Mid-Sized Newspapers

First Place: Laura Malt Schneiderman, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Second Place: Deena Yellin, NorthJersey.com
Third Place: Judy Thomas, The Kansas City Star

Excellence in Religion Reporting at Online-Only News Outlets

First Place: Phoebe Petrovic, Wisconsin Watch with ProPublica

Supple Award for Excellence in Religion Feature Writing

First Place: Emma Goldberg, The New York Times
Second Place: Ruth Graham, The New York Times
Third Place: Sam Kestenbaum, Harper’s Magazine

Gerald A. Renner Award for Excellence in Enterprise Religion Reporting

First Place: Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post
Second Place: Ruth Graham, The New York Times
Third Place: Talya Zax, The Forward

Excellence in Religion Commentary

First Place: Father Raymond de Souza, National Catholic Register
Second Place: Gillian Frank, The Revealer
Third Place: Amy Schwartz, Moment Magazine

Excellence in Religion News Analysis

First Place: Adam Haber, Matylda Figlerowicz, Dennis Hogan and Aparna Gopalan, Jewish Currents
Second Place: Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter
Third Place: Louis Keene, The Forward

Excellence in Magazine and Non-Daily Newspaper Religion Reporting

First Place: Mari Cohen, Jewish Currents
Second Place: Erik Tryggestad, The Christian Chronicle
Third Place: Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans, The Christian Century

Excellence in Magazine, Single Issue

The Revealer

Excellence in Radio Religion Reporting

First Place: Sarah Ventre, NPR

Excellence in Television Religion Reporting

First Place: Simon Ostrovsky, Yegor Troyanovsky, Shahida Tulaganova and Morgan Till, PBS NewsHour

Outstanding Religion Podcast

First Place (Tie): Tom Levinson, Amber Hacker, Jonathan Woodward, and Elizabeth Windom, RNS
First Place (Tie): Tony Ganzer, Faith Full Podcast

Photography: Gallery

First Place: Jessie Wardarski, The Associated Press
Second Place: Luis Andres Henao, The Associated Press

Excellence in Nonfiction Religion Books

First Place: Asaf Elia-Shalev, “Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth”