THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE EDITORS ANNOUNCE FINALISTS FOR 2021 NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS

ASME will celebrate the Ellie Awards and honor finalists virtually on Thursday, June 10^th. Winners will give live speeches during the event. Attendees will be able to socialize virtually with people sitting at their table, and hosts of tables of 10 will be able to table-hop during the event. ASME is offering specially priced tickets for ASME NEXT members and other journalists under 30. Ticket information is available at ellieawards.org. 

“In the toughest of times, journalism sees us through, and this year’s finalists for the National Magazine Awards represent a new industry standard,” said Sid Holt, executive director of ASME. “The diversity of work across mediums is a true showcase for what ASME and Columbia seek to highlight year after year. Congratulations to our 2021 finalists.” 

This year’s awards will be highlighted by the first-time presentation of the ASME Award for Coverage of Race in America. The finalists for this special award include The American Scholar, ESPN.com, ProPublica, TIME and Vanity Fair.

Tickets to the virtual 2021 Ellie Awards are now on sale. Ellie Awards ticket sales provide support for the Osborn Elliott Scholarship at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Named in honor of the former Newsweek editor, ASME president and Columbia Journalism School dean, the scholarship is awarded to students who intend to pursue careers in magazine journalism. To purchase tickets, visit ellieawards.org.

National Magazine Awards 2021 Finalists

General Excellence, News, Sports and Entertainment

• The Atlantic
• The Marshall Project
• New York
• The New York Times Magazine
• The New Yorker

General Excellence, Service and Lifestyle

• Epicurious
• SELF
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine
• Vogue
• WSJ. Magazine

General Excellence, Special Interest

• Audubon
• Harvard Business Review
• Kazoo
• Scientific American
• Texas Monthly

General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics

• Aperture
• The Believer
• MIT Technology Review
• Stranger’s Guide
• Virginia Quarterly Review

Design

• Bon Appétit
• Fast Company
• National Geographic
• New York
• WIRED

Photography

• The Atlantic
• GQ
• New York
• Stranger’s Guide
• WSJ. Magazine

Feature Design

• The Atlantic for "Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming"
• Bon Appétit for "Taco Nation"
• Here for "Natural Wonder"
• Smithsonian for "The Charlatan Will See You Now"
• Vanity Fair for "Let the Great World Spin"

Feature Photography

• The California Sunday Magazine for “Our Border,” photographs by Carolyn Drake and Andres Gonzales
• The New York Times Magazine for “America at Hunger's Edge,” photographs by Brenda Ann Kenneally
• The New Yorker for "A City Nurse," photographs by Karen Cunningham
• The New Yorker for "Whose Streets," photographs by Isaac Scott
• TIME for “Faces of Protest,” photographs by Adam Ferguson

Digital Storytelling 

• The Believer for "The Vine and the Fish," by Leise Hook
• National Geographic for "Your Climate, Changed"
• Outside for "This Is Every Cyclist Who Was Killed by a Driver in 2020"
• ProPublica and Honolulu Star-Advertiser for “Hawaii’s Beaches Are Disappearing,” by Ash Ngu, ProPublica, and Sophie Cocke, Honolulu Star-Advertiser
• Texas Monthly for "All 144 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked," By David Courtney, Michael Hall, Rich Kienzle, Max Marshall, Joe Nick Patoski, John Spong and Christian Wallace

Social Media

• Golf Digest
• National Geographic for “Everest: Journey to the Roof of the World”
• The New Yorker for “April 15, 2020”
• ProPublica for “Grace: A Failure in Michigan’s Juvenile Justice System”
• SELF

Podcasting

• The Atlantic for three episodes of “Floodlines,” hosted by Vann R. Newkirk II: “Part 1: Antediluvian,” “Part 3: Through the Looking Glass” and “Part VIII: The Wake”
• C13Originals for three episodes of “Gangster Capitalism: The NRA,” hosted by Andrew Jenks: "The Big Game," "A Hostile Takeover" and "Down to the Studs”
• The Intercept with Topic Studios, Invisible Institute and iHeartRadio, in association with Tenderfoot TV, for three episodes of “Somebody,” hosted by Shapearl Wells: “Who Shot Courtney Copeland?,” “The Nurse” and “The Police”
• Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting for three episodes of: “American Rehab,” hosted by Al Letson: “A Desperate Call,” “A Venomous Snake” and “Shadow Workforce”
• Unbothered by Refinery29 for three episodes of “Go Off, Sis,” hosted by Danielle Cadet, Stephanie Long, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Chelsea Sanders: “Ally Is Spelled L.O.U.D.,” “Keep That Same Energy” and “Black Women Are Essential”

Video

• Food & Wine for three episodes of “Tasting Home” with Kwame Onwuachi: “Travels With Papa,” directed by Jen Lomeli, “Following the Thread,” directed by Zoë Engongoro, and “In Her Footsteps,” directed by Zoë Engongoro and Jen Lomeli
• The New Yorker for “Quiet No More,” directed by Eléonore Hamelin
• Pop-Up Magazine for “Mama's Babies,” directed by Adrian L. Burrell
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine for “Long Island's Enduring Black Beachfront Community,” directed by Joshua Kissi
• TIME and the Marshall Project for “Anatomy of Hate,” directed by Emily Kassie

Single-Topic Issue

• Bloomberg Businessweek for “The Lost Year”
• National Geographic for “Earth Day 50th Anniversary”
• Public Books and NYU Cities Collaborative for “Preexisting Conditions: What 2020 Reveals About Our Urban Future”
• Texas Monthly for “Willie”
• Vanity Fair for “The Great Fire: A Special Issue,” Guest Edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Personal Service

• Bloomberg Businessweek for “Working From Home: The Ultimate Guide to Staying Productive—and Sane,” by the staff of Bloomberg Businessweek with Arianne Cohen
• Marie Claire for “Invasion of Privacy: Marie Claire's Guide to Protecting Yourself Online,” edited by Megan DiTrolio
• The Marshall Project for “COVID-19: A Survival Guide for Incarcerated People,” by Lawrence Bartley, Brie Williams, M.D., M.S., and Leah Rorvig, M.D., M.S., and “Coronavirus Transforming Jails Across the Country,” by Cary Aspinwall, Keri Blakinger, Abbie Vansickle and Christie Thompson
• Parents for “Kindness in 2020”
• SELF for “Black Mental Health,” by Zahra Barnes, Candace Bond-Theriault, Patia Braithwaite, Rozalynn S. Frazier, C.P.T., and Tonya Russell

Leisure Interests

• Bon Appétit for “The Basically Guide to Better Baking”
• New York for three “Biography of a Building” articles by Matthew Sedacca: “Graham Court: The Gilded Age Rental,” “One Fifth: The Downtown Co-op of All Downtown Co-ops” and “Villa Charlotte Brontë: A Cliffside Co-op in the Bronx”
• Parents for “Read Together, Be Together”
• Polygon for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guides”
• Texas Monthly for “The Year of the Taco,” by José R. Ralat

Community Journalism 

• 5280 for “The Block,” by Robert Sanchez
• The Marshall Project and Slate for “What Do We Really Know About the Politics of People Behind Bars?,” by Nicole Lewis, Aviva Shen and Anna Flagg, “Millennials, Meth and Mass Incarceration,” by Aviva Shen and Katie Park, and “What 2,392 Incarcerated People Think About #DefundThePolice,” by Nicole Lewis, Anna Flagg and Aviva Shen
• Mother Jones for “Whose Streets?,” by Samantha Michaels, “How Black Oaklanders Finally Expelled the School Police,” by Edwin Rios, and “Carroll Fife Is in the House. Now She Wants to Burn It Down,” by Jamilah King
• ProPublica and Anchorage Daily News for “Unheard,” by Adriana Gallardo, Nadia Sussman and Agnes Chang, ProPublica, and Kyle Hopkins and Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News
• The Trace with Code Switch from NPR for “In a Year of Racial and Political Turmoil, This Black Gun Group Is Booming,” by Lakeidra Chavis and Agya K. Aning, and “Black and Up in Arms,” hosted by Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji with Lakeidra Chavis

Reporting

• 1843 Magazine for “‘If I Speak Out, They Will Torture My Family’: Voices of Uyghurs in Exile,” by John Phipps
• The Atlantic for two articles by Barton Gellman: “The Election That Could Break America” and “How Trump Could Attempt a Coup”
• The Intercept for “The CIA's Afghan Death Squads,” by Andrew Quilty
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Children in the Shadows,” by Samantha M. Shapiro
• The New Yorker for three articles by Peter Hessler: “Life on Lockdown,” “How China Controlled the Virus” and “The Sealed City”
• The New Yorker for “The Plague Year,” by Lawrence Wright
• Slate for “The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd,” by Aymann Ismail

Feature Writing 

• The American Scholar for “Slow Blues” by Tamara Dean
• The California Sunday Magazine for “What Happened in Room 10?,” by Katie Engelhart
• ESPN.com for “Michael Jordan: A History of Flight,” by Wright Thompson
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Accusation,” by Sarah Viren
• The New Yorker for “Thirty-Six Thousand Feet Under the Sea,” by Ben Taub
• Runner’s World for “Twelve Minutes and a Life,” by Mitchell S. Jackson
• Texas Monthly for “The Aftermath” by Robert Draper

Profile Writing

• ESPN.com for “The Remarkable Life (and Near Death) of Boxer Christy Martin,” by Allison Glock
• The New York Times Magazine for “It’s a Weird, Weird, Weird, Weird World,” by Sam Anderson
• The New Yorker for “Skin in the Game,” by Emily Nussbaum
• The New Yorker for “Survival Story,” by Jennifer Gonnerman
• Philadelphia for “Remnants on a South Philly Stoop,” by Jason Sheehan

Essays and Criticism

• The Atlantic for “The Collaborators,” by Anne Applebaum
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Kitchen Is Closed,” by Gabrielle Hamilton
• The New Yorker for “The Trayvon Generation,” by Elizabeth Alexander
• The New Yorker for “Homecoming,” by Hilton Als
• Vanity Fair for “Witness and Respair,” by Jesmyn Ward

Columns and Commentary

• The Atlantic for three columns by Anne Applebaum: "This Is How Reaganism and Thatcherism End," "Venezuela Is the Eerie Endgame of Modern Politics" and “The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff"
• The Economist for three “Obituary” columns by Ann Wroe: “The Man Who Knew: Li Wenliang Died on February 7^th,” “Diva Dissenter: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Died on September 18^th,” and “The Watchful Scribbler: John le Carré Died on December 12^th”
• The New Yorker for three columns by Jelani Cobb: “The Death of George Floyd, in Context,” “How Freedom Came” and "Violent Winds"
• The Paris Review for three “Detroit Archives” columns by Aisha Sabatini Sloan: “Ladies of the Good Dead,” “On Immolation” and “On Doulas”
• Texas Highways for three articles from “Open Road”: “In the Valley of Mirrors,” by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, “A Place Before Words,” by ire’ne lara silva, and “The Desert Reclaims Everything,” by Roberto José Andrade Franco

Public Interest

• The Atlantic for three articles by Ed Yong: "How the Pandemic Will End," "Long-Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19" and "Anatomy of an American Failure"
• High Country News With the Pulitzer Center and Fund for Investigative Journalism for “Land-Grab Universities," by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone
• The New Yorker for "Punishment by Pandemic," by Rachel Aviv
• ProPublica for two articles by Lizzie Presser: "The Black American Amputation Epidemic" and "Tethered to the Machine"
• Reveal From the Center for Investigative Reporting for a two-article series: "The Disappeared," by Aura Bogado, and "U.S. Detained Migrant Children for Far Longer Than Previously Known," co-published by the Los Angeles Times, by Aura Bogado and Melissa Lewis

ASME Award for Coverage of Race in America

• The American Scholar for “The Patriot Slave,” by Farah Peterson
• ESPN.com for three articles by Howard Bryant: “Why It Matters That Roger Goodell Didn't Say Colin Kaepernick's Name,” “The Exile of Oakland A's Bruce Maxwell and the Birth of MLB's Black Player Movement” and “The Reality of Black Pain Is Breaking American Sports' Status Quo”
• ProPublica for “How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men,” by Akilah Johnson and Nina Martin, and “Black Men Have the Shortest Lifespans of Any Americans,” produced by Nadia Sussman and Joe Singer
• TIME for “Is This a Model for Reparations in the U.S.?,” by Victor Luckerson
• Vanity Fair for “The Great Fire: A Special Issue,” Guest Edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates

ASME Award for Fiction

WINNER 

Harper's Magazine for “The Whale Mother,” by Susan Choi, “Terrace Story,” by Hilary Leichter, and “New Poets,” by Michael Deagler 

FINALISTS 

• American Short Fiction for "The Electric Slide," by Ted Thompson, "The Last Days of Rodney" by Tracey Rose Peyton, and "Spare the Rod," by Rickey Fayne
• Conjunctions for "Yonder Shines the Big Red Moon Over the Devil’s Lost Playground," by Brandon Hobson, "The Owl Count," by Elizabeth Hand, and "The Moon Fairy," by Sofia Samatar
• Oxford American for “Cane Creek,” by Ben Fountain, “A Search,” by Jayne Anne Phillips, and “Bitch Baby,” by Halle Hill
• The Paris Review for “Let's Play Dead,” by Senaa Ahmad, “Good Boy,” by Eloghosa Osunde, and “Violets,” by Bud Smith

ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30

The ASME NEXT Awards were established in 2016 to support the development of print and digital media by honoring magazine journalists of extraordinary promise. 

ASME NEXT Awards 2021 Recipients 

Maxine Builder, Deputy Editor, The Strategist, New York                               
Nominated by Alexis Swerdloff, Editor, The Strategist, New York

Mamadi Doumbouya, Photographer, The New York Times Magazine
Nominated by Jake Silverstein, Editor in Chief, The New York Times Magazine 

Andrea González-Ramírez, Senior Writer, GEN                                              
Nominated by Brendan Vaughan, Editor in Chief, GEN 

Morgan Jerkins, Senior Editor, ZORA
Nominated by Vanessa De Luca, Editor in Chief, ZORA 

Robinson Meyer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Nominated by Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief, The Atlantic

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The American Society of Magazine Editors is the principal organization for the editorial leaders of magazines and websites published in the United States. Founded in 1963, ASME strives to safeguard the First Amendment, support the development of journalism and defend the editorial integrity of print and digital publications. ASME sponsors the National Magazine Awards for Print and Digital Media in association with the Columbia Journalism School, conducts training programs for reporters and editors and publishes the ASME Guidelines for Editors and Publishers.

Sid Holt
[email protected]
212-872-3723 

Kaitlyn Kurosky
[email protected]

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