Religion News Association announces award winners for 2025 contest
ARLINGTON, Va. – Religion reporters from around the world won top honors Saturday, April 5, at the Religion News Association’s 76th Annual Awards Banquet.
David Briggs, formerly of The Associated Press, was presented with the William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award for his exceptional long-term commitment and service to the field of religion reporting.
Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times won first place for Excellence in Religion Reporting—Large Newspapers and Wire Services. Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post won second place. Third place was awarded to Deepa Bharath of The Associated Press.
Laura Malt Schneiderman of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette won first place for Excellence in Religion Reporting — Small and Mid-sized Newspapers. Deena Yellin of NorthJersey.com won second place. Third place was awarded to Judy Thomas of The Kansas City Star.
In the Award for Excellence in Religion Reporting—Online-only News Outlets, first place was awarded to Phoebe Petrovic for work done in Wisconsin Watch with ProPublica.
First place in the Supple Award for Excellence in Religion Feature Writing went to Emma Goldberg of The New York Times, while second place went to Ruth Graham of The New York Times. Sam Kestenbaum won third place for work published in Harper’s Magazine.
Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post received first place in the Gerald A. Renner Award for Excellence in Enterprise Religion Reporting. Second place went to Ruth Graham of The New York Times. Third place was awarded to Talya Zax of The Forward.
First place for Excellence in Religion Commentary was awarded to Father Raymond de Souza for work done in the National Catholic Register. Second place was awarded to Gillian Frank for work done at The Revealer. Amy Schwartz of Moment Magazine won third place.
First place for Excellence in Religion News Analysis was awarded to Adam Haber, Matylda Figlerowicz, Dennis Hogan and Aparna Gopalan of Jewish Currents. Second place was awarded to Heidi Schlumpf of National Catholic Reporter. Louis Keene of The Forward placed third.
Mari Cohen of Jewish Currents placed first in the award for Excellence in Magazine News Religion Reporting. Erik Tryggestad of The Christian Chronicle won second place, while Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans placed third for work published in The Christian Century.
In the contest for Story of the Year, first place went to Sam Kestenbaum for work published in Harper’s Magazine. Second place went to Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times. Third place went to Luis Andres Henao of The Associated Press.
The Award for Excellence in Magazine, Single Issue, went to The Revealer.
First place for Excellence in Radio Religion Reporting went to Sarah Ventre of NPR.
In the contest for Best Religion Podcast, there was a first place tie between Tom Levinson, Amber Hacker, Jonathan Woodward, and Elizabeth Windom of RNS and Tony Ganzer of Faith Full Podcast.
Simon Ostrovsky, Yegor Troyanovsky, Shahida Tulaganova and Morgan Till of PBS NewsHour received first place for Excellence in Television Religion Reporting.
In the Photo Gallery category, first place went to Jessie Wardarski of The Associated Press. Second place went to Luis Andres Henao of The Associated Press.
The first place Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Religion Book was presented to Asaf Elia-Shalev for Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth.
For the Chandler Award for Excellence in Student Religion Reporting, first place went to Rachel Hale of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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