2023 Zenger Prize
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WATCH: This 15-minute video shows the 2026 Zenger Prize winners discussing their prizewinning stories, what keeps them persisting in an embattled industry, and how Zenger House is making an impact.
WINNERS
Justin Giboney
And Campaign
In his weekly podcast Justin Giboney leads a street-level and non-partisan examination of Christian involvement in political issues. Fighting polarization by emphasizing discernment and refusing to dehumanize either right or left, Church Politics offers realistic hope to those who might otherwise despair.
Farnaz Fassihi
The New York Times, February 23, 2025
Co-authors Farnaz Fassihi and Hamed Aleaziz traced the journey of an Iranian convert to Christianity through Abu Dhabi, South Korea, Mexico City—and finally to California, where she hoped to be free from persecution. In February 2025, though, U.S. federal agents shackled Artemis Ghasemzadeh and sent her to Panama.
Hamed Aleaziz
Mindy Belz
Christianity Today, May 2025
Mindy Belz profiled surgeon Denis Mukwege, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of a hospital that has treated 70,000 women for injuries resulting from rape, mostly by M23 rebels trying to take over eastern Congo. The war goes on and Mukwege, led by his faith in God, keeps fighting evil.
Emmanuel Nwachukwu
Christianity Today, May 8, 2025
Emmanuel Nwachukwu portrayed life in a refugee camp for Nigerians fleeing terrorists. Life, already tough for Jennifer Abraham, became even harder when assailants murdered her husband last year. She finds ways to feed their four children and says, “I don’t know when, but soon, God help me. Soon.”
Elizabeth Bruenig
The Atlantic, June 9, 2025
Elizabeth Bruenig described what witnessing numerous executions taught her about evil and mercy. She reports the pain experienced by victims’ families and how some on Death Row respond to compassion, raising hard questions about how we weigh justice and the possibility of redemption.
John Woodrow Cox
Washington Post, July 12, 2025
By offering a story of resilience and survival, John Woodrow Cox provided a different angle on the flash flood that last July killed 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic in central Texas. Heroism merges with mystery, and a gripping image ends the story: “They bowed their heads.”
Joshua Rothman
New Yorker Magazine, July 22, 2025
Joshua Rothman’s moving portrait of Dr. Greg Gulbransen showed how one man turned a terrible tragedy—accidentally running over and killing his two-year-old son in 2002—into a career dedicated to helping others through his “therapeutic workaholism.” He both saves lives and documents lives through photography.
Nancy Walecki
The Atlantic, August 7, 2025
Nancy Walecki unspooled the history of her dad, who while running a guitar business counseled a generation of famous musicians. She drips in accounts of discount store competition, drug use, and hospitality, along with stories of personality and pathos among the music elite—and a religious awakening.
Elliott Woods
Texas Monthly, December 1, 2025
Elliott Woods showed, in words and pictures, striving and death amid the largest immigration-related disaster in American history. With awareness of border policy failure and sympathy for those desperately trying to improve their lives, Woods probed the intersection of meth-fueled smugglers and pocket prayer cards.
Sean Rubin
Plough Quarterly, December 26, 2025
Sean Rubin told how his mother embraced Christ not through Bible reading, a sermon, or a “moment of decision,” but via a winding road with a painting at the crucial turn. His story illuminates both God’s providence and a work of art studied for its mysterious illumination.
BONUS: In this 3-minute video, several of the 2026 Zenger Prize winners share their thoughts on artificial intelligence, and how—or if—AI will impact the journalism industry.
Zenger Prizes are the successor to the Amy Writing Awards administered by the Amy Foundation for 31 years through 2015. Prizes honor journalists whose work displayed solid reporting and storytelling.
Zenger Prize Winners' Recent Work
June 5, 2025/ "The Man Who Unsolved a Murder"
For CalMatters, Anat Rubin shows how a dire shortage of public defense investigators leaves countless poor defendants convicted without anyone probing their side of the story, undermining justice and fueling wrongful convictions in California.
December 15, 2024/ "The Alienation of Jaime Cachua."
Once again, Saslow brings humanity to a complex topic, telling the story of an undocumented immigrant in Rome, Ga., to show the real-world toll of Trump's immigration policies.
April 8, 2024/ "Dr. Bob, 75, Knows Aging’s Toll. He Wonders if Biden and Trump Do."
Eli Saslow expertly profiles small-town physician Bob Ross, who ponders his own cognitive fitness as he enters advanced age, while also raising questions about whether the similarly aged presidential candidates are "up to the task."
August 24, 2023/ "Don’t Waste Your Life: How One Family Stopped Being Trashy Christians"
For Christianity Today, Emily Belz shares how one Tennessee family aims to manage their impact on the environment by living a "zero waste" life.
August 15, 2023/ "All About Jesus: Tim Keller’s Memorial Service"
Sarah Zylstra reports on the service honoring the life of famed Presbyterian minister Tim Keller, who died this year of pancreatic cancer. Read more at The Gospel Coalition, the publication Keller co-founded.
August 12, 2023/ "What the New Wave of Prison Art Tells Us About Incarceration Today"
Maurice Chammah's latest for The Marshall Project: "From LEGO sculptures to psychedelic quilts, several new exhibits convey the prison experience in ways that transcend words alone."
July 6, 2023/ "Transformation of a Transgender Teen"
Writing for The Gospel Coalition, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra reports on one family's experience with a child who claimed to be transgender.
July 5, 2023/ "The Young Christian Who Took Johnson & Johnson to Court"
Emily Belz for Christianity Today profiles Hanna Wilt, who "testified to God’s presence in a terminal diagnosis while pursuing a case against [Johnson & Johnson] over its baby powder."
June 25, 2023/ "He Tried to Save a Friend. They Charged Him With Murder."
In The New York Times, Eli Saslow offers a nuanced, narrative look at the complicated work of prosecuting drug deaths.
June 10, 2023/ "A Battle Over First Amendment Rights in Prisons"
Maurice Chammah co-writes an article for The Marshall Project about New York's attempts to limit prisoners' writings and artistic works.
June 2, 2023/ "Inside the Meltdown at CNN"
For a profile in The Atlantic, Tim Alberta gained remarkable access to Chris Licht in what would become his final days as head of CNN.
April 21, 2023/ "The deputy and the disappeared"
In a long-form article for CNN, Thomas Lake explores a deputy sheriff's apparent connection to two missing men of color.
April 17, 2023/ "Seeking Absolution: Inside The Jesus Movement That Shaped My Childhood"
Yahoo! News Chief National Correspondent Jon Ward, on Religion Unplugged, shares an excerpt from his latest book, “Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation.”
March 24, 2023/ "Donald Trump Is on the Wrong Side of the Religious Right"
The Atlantic's Tim Alberta claims, "Evangelical leaders are abandoning the former president, and his Republican rivals are scrambling to win their support."
March 13, 2023/ "Mike Pence seems to know where he's going"
In a lengthy interview for Yahoo! News, Jon Ward talks to former Vice President—and prospective 2024 presidential candidate—Mike Pence.
February 16, 2023/ "Radical beliefs in 'spiritual warfare' played a major role in Jan. 6, an expert argues"
Jon Ward for Yahoo! News: "Religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor says the rhetoric of Christian nationalist pastors can tip over into actual violence."
February 15, 2023/ "Requiem for the Spartans"
Michigan State graduate Tim Alberta reflects on how the February 13th shooting at his alma mater has already changed the campus.
February 13, 2023/ "Ministers in Ukraine Are ‘Ready to Meet God at Any Moment’"
After a recent reporting trip to the war-torn country, Sophia Lee reports that "pastors and church leaders who stayed behind serve as if every day might be their last."
February 11, 2023/ "America Has Gone Too Far in Legalizing Vice"
In his debut for The Atlantic, Matthew Loftus considers how lawmakers restrict or permit the entrenchment of vice.
January 3, 2023/ "A Poet for 'Bruised Evangelicals'"
Kara Bettis offers another engaging profile in Christianity Today, this time of "Anglican priest, poet, academic, and singer-songwriter" Malcolm Guite.
October - December 2022/ The James Brown Podcast
For CNN, Thomas Lake explores the mysterious circumstances around the death of "The Godfather of Soul."