Congrats to all of our staff and freelancers for their work this past year. Here’s a list of awards INDY Week writers won. 

NC Press Association

1st Place

Leigh Tauss

Election/Political Reporting: Chapel Hill’s Election Will Chart Its Course for Growth & NC Congressional District reporting

Brian Howe

Arts and Entertainment Reporting: Majesty feature & The Lost Era of Indie Rock

Sara Pequeño

Duke University/Green-Rossiter Award for Distinguished Newspaper Work in Higher Education Reporting: Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Experience with UNC Emblematic of Struggle for Black Women in Academia

2nd Place

Leigh Tauss, Thomasi McDonald

News Enterprise Reporting: Durham’s COVID-19 Motel: “It’s another prison” & Protesters Decry Conditions

3rd Place

Leigh Tauss, Jasmine Gallup

City, County Government Reporting: Regulating feral cats series here and here and Food vendors report

Sarah Edwards, Lena Geller

Business Writing: The Phenomenon of Nugget Furniture & How Yelp Reviews Hurt Local Restaurants

Thomasi McDonald

Beat News Reporting: Ceasefire Initiative, Gun Violence Epidemic, Durham Neighborhoods

Green Eyeshade Awards

1st Place

Leigh Tauss, Jasmine Gallup & Matt Hartman:

Public Affairs Reporting, Non-Dailies: Feral Cat Series (story 2 in series); Raleigh Council Reduces Hours for Food Cart Operators; COVID Pandemic Has Exacerbated Housing Inequities

Nick Martin, Byron Woods, Sarah Edwards & Brian Howe

Criticism, Non-Dailies: Revisiting Link Wray’s Eponymous Album, Howard Craft Revival, Mandolin Orange Becomes Watchhouse, Allan Gurganus’s Second Coming, Are White Dominated Arts Institutions Willing to Give Up Power to Diversify?

2nd Place

Sara Pequeño, Thomasi McDonald, Jasmine Gallup & Lewis Kendall

General News Reporting, Non-Dailies: General news reports (Including our reporting on Camp Lejeune’s toxic water)

Leigh Tauss & Thomasi McDonald

Courts and the Law Reporting: Inside Durham’s COVID Motel; Family Members of Inmates Who Died at Johnston County Jail Allege Negligence

AAN Awards

2nd Place

LGBT Coverage – Funded by Boulder Weekly Publisher Fran Zankowski: Sara Pequeño, Legislating Bodies

Immigration Coverage: Jane Porter and Caryl Espinoza Jaen, Untitled + Ongoing Struggle

3rd Place

News Story – Long Form: Sara Pequeño, The Hate in Our State

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