The Winners: IFWTWA Excellence In Journalism Writing Competition

IFWTWA wishes to congratulate the five winners of our 2022 Excellence in Journalism awards.

There were 79 entries, 60 from IFWTWA members and 19 from non-members.

Below we share the winners, who were announced in 2023, and an excerpt from each winner’s story. The 2022 Excellence in Journalism awards include first, second, and third place and two honorable mentions.

First Place

Running with the Wind – the Wild Horses of Shackleford Banks by Michael Hodgson.

I’d wanted to spend time with the wild horses in the Outer Banks of North Carolina ever since seeing photographs, I believe it was in a National Geographic years ago, of wild horses galloping through the surf. The story of survival and adaptation for these unique horses also captured my imagination — each is genetically linked to Spanish mustangs brought to the coast centuries ago by Spanish Conquistadors and other explorers. When the opportunity arose to spend a few days observing and photographing the sometimes elusive herds in Shackleford Banks, it seemed a dream fulfilled. In writing the story and sharing the photographs published with it, I hoped to give readers a sense of how special it is to be with these horses. I wanted to share how readers could plan their own adventure by spending time with the wild mustangs in the Outer Banks.

Second Place

Ireland’s Priceless Treasure Hidden By Monks by Tracy Croke

My story was a long time in the making — decades in fact. At least that’s how long I’ve known about Derrynaflan. This inland island in Ireland (there’s a tongue-twister) is a patch of land in the remote Tipperary boglands close to where my husband grew up and where he often kicked around a Gaelic football with his mates as a kid. He probably ran across that priceless treasure a thousand times. Back then, only locals were really aware of the island and ancient monastery. You had to know how to get in and out through the treacherous boglands to reach it. However, during the COVID pandemic, it became more accessible via a stone pathway built with a local grant. This project gave the story a new impetus to pique the interest of the BBC.

Third Place

Secret Italy – Under the Tyrrhenian Sun by Natascha Mirosch

Is there a word for people who are inordinately fond of islands? If so, I’m one. I’m always seeking them out when I travel. Not the all-inclusive, major cruise line port of call-type islands, but the kind that locals choose for their holidays. Standing with other passengers, primarily families, waiting to board the aliscafo at the port of Formia, southwest of Rome, and hearing only Italian spoken, I knew that Ponza would fit the brief. I booked an apartment, not at the pretty half-moon harbor, with its fishing boats and pastel-hued houses stacked up the hill, but on the other side of the island, high up on the cliffs. The payoff for climbing the many, many stairs were views to rival Amalfi or Positano, without the credit card-maxing price tag. I didn’t have a commission for this story beforehand, but I knew it wouldn’t be a hard sell, so I emailed my favorite editor, who immediately responded, “Yes, please! – When can we have it?”

Honorable Mentions

Hitting the Brakes in Western Pennsylvania by David Drotar

This piece started as a blog post because I didn’t think a car museum warranted a full article that would be particularly interesting to anyone other than antique car enthusiasts. I began by simply listing some of the unusual cars in chronological order of their manufacture date. But then, when I began to fill in the piece with the backstories of the car owners and the museum creators, I thought of my own first car in 1974, and something clicked. As I write in the piece, “I realized that most everyone has fond, traumatic, unusual, or otherwise special mileposts of their lives that are demarked by cars.”

How a Kashmiri Tea Warmed My Cup and Soul by Sucheta Rawal

Excellence In Journalism