SOCIETY FOR FEATURES JOURNALISM HONORS THE BEST IN ITS FIELD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJUNE 7, 2016________________FOR MEDIA INQUIRIESLisa Glowinski, SFJ president, 217.816.3343Andrew Nynka, SFJ executive director, 347.260.3874The Society for Features Journalism has honored three Pulitzer Prize winners and a host of other journalists as part of its 2016 Excellence-in-Features Awards contest.Three newspapers also were recognized with the inaugural Finest in Features Sweepstakes Awards, which goes to those publications that received the most honors in the annual contest. The first-ever Best College Features Journalist in the Country also was named. Winners in the 19 categories were announced today.More than 700 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. 10-13 in Austin, Texas.SFJ President Lisa Glowinski said, “I am beyond impressed with the variety of winners this year. Excellent features journalism is truly alive and well – in print, online, on social media and in our readers’ lives.”Pulitzer Prize winners who received SFJ awards included:

• Lane DeGregory of the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, who placed third in General Feature of the large-newspaper division for “Dear Birth Mother.” She won a Pulitzer for Feature Writing in 2009.

• Tom Hallman Jr. of The (Portland) Oregonian, who received an honorable mention in Short Feature in the large-newspaper division for “Trying to Make a Hood River Girl’s Last Birthday Party Special.” He won the Pulitzer in Feature Writing in 2001.

• Alison Sherwood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who placed first in Best Features Website, Digital Channel or App in the large-newspaper division for the newspaper’s Fresh channel. 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 a first place and honorable mention in Digital Innovation and a second place in Feature Writing Specialty Portfolio.

• Carlos Frias, who was recognized in three categories – Best Features Website, Digital Channel or App; General Feature and Video Storytelling – for his work at the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post. Frias now is the food writer at The Miami Herald.

Winning the first-ever Finest in Features Sweepstakes Awards in the small-newspaper category (circulation of 90,000 or less) was The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post. The Post won seven honors, including three-first place awards. The (Nashville) Tennessean was second, and the (Albany, N.Y.) Times Union was third.In the medium-size category (circulation of 90,001 to 199,999), the Finest in Features Sweepstakes winner was The Virginian-Pilot, based in Norfolk, which garnered 11 awards. Tied for second were the Baltimore Sun and The Kansas City Star.The Finest in Features Sweepstakes honor in the large-newspaper category (circulation of 200,000 and above) went to The Washington Post, which won 16 awards, including six first-place honors. Second was the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, and third was the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Cody Stavenhagen of Oklahoma State University was named the Best College Features Journalist in the Country. The judges lauded him for a strong voice and said, “His stories were compelling and drew us from the lede to the end.” Other honored college journalists were Corey Williams of Auburn University, second; Matthew Lieberson of Vanderbilt University, third; and Baxter Barrowcliff of Columbia College in Chicago, honorable mention. For a complete list of this year’s winners, visit this link: https://featuresjournalism.org/sfj-28th-annual-award-winners-by-category/______________FOR CONTEST INQUIRIES:Jim Haag, contest co-chair, 757-639-2675Suzy Fleming Leonard, contest co-chair, 321-242-3614