FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJUNE 23, 2015FOR MEDIA INQUIRIESTerry Scott Bertling, SFJ president, 210.250.3112Andrew Nynka, SFJ executive director, 301.314.2631The Society for Features Journalism has honored seven Pulitzer Prize winners and a host of other journalists as part of its 2015 Excellence-in-Features Awards contest.Also receiving recognition were 10 newspapers for outstanding features sections and journalists in 15 other categories. Winners were announced today.More than 800 entries were judged in the contest, which honors the craft of feature storytelling and the people who do it for a living at news organizations in the United States and Canada. Winners will be recognized at SFJ’s national conference Aug. 26-29 in College Park, Md. Pulitzer Prize winners who received SFJ awards included:

• Liz Balmaseda of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, who placed third in Blog Portfolio and received an honorable mention for Short Feature in the small-newspaper division. She won a Pulitzer for commentary in 1993.

• Lane DeGregory of the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, who was third in Narrative Storytelling in the large-newspaper division. She took the Pulitzer for feature writing in 2009.

• Tom Hallman of The (Portland) Oregonian, who received an honorable mention in Sports Feature in the large-newspaper division. He won the Pulitzer in feature writing in 2001.

• Mark Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who received second-place honors in both Narrative Storytelling and Integrated Storytelling in the large-newspaper division. He took the Pulitzer in 2011 for Explanatory Reporting.

• Diana Marcum of the Los Angeles Times, who placed first in Feature Series or Project in the large-newspaper division for her drought series that won the Pulitzer for feature writing this year.

• Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times, whose portfolio was first in Arts and Entertainment Commentary in the large-newspaper division. She won the Pulitzer this year for criticism.

• Alison Sherwood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who received an honorable mention for Digital Innovation in the large-newspaper division. The Pulitzer board honored her in 2011 for Explanatory Reporting.

Several journalists won multiple awards in SFJ’s contest, including:

• Michael Cavna of the Washington Post, who received honors in Blog Portfolio, Video Storytelling, General Feature and Short Feature.

• Barbara Marshall of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, who was recognized in five categories: Feature Specialty Writing Portfolio, Arts and Entertainment Feature, Narrative Storytelling, General Feature, and Arts and Entertainment Feature.

Winning best-section honors in the small-newspaper category (circulation of 90,000 or less) were the Edmonton (Canada) Journal, (Greensboro, N.C.) News & Record and The (Nashville) Tennessean.In the medium-size category (circulation of 90,001 to 199,999), the winners were the Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Antonio Express-News and The Virginian-Pilot.Winners in the large-newspaper category (circulation of 200,000 and above) were the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post.Among smaller newspapers, those receiving the most awards were the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, which dominated in writing categories and won 13 honors; the (Albany, N.Y.) Times Union, with seven awards; and the Edmonton (Canada) Journal, with six.In the middle-sized newspaper category, the big winners were The Virginian-Pilot, with 12 honors; San Antonio Express-News with eight and Kansas City Star with six.In the large-newspaper category, the Washington Post received 14 awards, the Los Angeles Times won 10 and the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times had seven.SFJ is an organization that promotes and celebrates features journalism. For more information, go to www.featuresjournalism.org.For a complete list of this year’s winners, click here.______________FOR CONTEST INQUIRIES:Suzy Fleming Leonard, contest co-chair, 321-242-3614Jim Haag, contest co-chair, 757-639-2675