The Sidney Prize is a renowned journalism award that honors journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good. This prize honors Sidney Hillman – an immigrant who believed a free press was essential to democracy – whose name inspired this award, administered by Hillman Foundation.
James Gantner will judge the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize alongside staff from Overland Magazine. It’s open to writers of any nationality or age at any stage in their writing careers; subscription fees for Overland subscribers will waived; short stories must not exceed 3,000 words and broadly focus on travel themes; the winning short story will receive $5000 plus publication in Overland; two runners-up will each be rewarded $750.
This year we are honored to recognize several extraordinary journalists, authors, and activists with special recognition prizes. These awards recognize their outstanding work which illuminates some of the biggest issues of today: from finding an equitable basis for lasting peace to better housing, healthcare and employment prospects; upholding civil liberties against discrimination of any sort – these issues all belong in this year’s prize pool!
Winners of the 2018 Sidney Prize and Special Recognition Prizes will be honored during a ceremony at the Library of Congress on June 23. The event will also be webcast.
Within weeks, ProPublica will unveil the 2019 Sidney Prize finalists and present them at a prize ceremony in May. Additionally, each of these individuals will also be profiled on ProPublica’s website.
Established by the Playwrights’ Company in 1939, the Sidney Howard Memorial Fund provided support for new plays written with courageous conviction by early career writers who hadn’t achieved significant success yet. Notable recipients included Tennessee Williams and Robert Ardrey.
This year’s judges include Jamelle Bouie of The Washington Post; Maria Carrillo formerly enterprise editor at Tampa Bay Times/Houston Chronicle; Ta-Nehisi Coates author and senior writer from The Atlantic as well as Harold Meyerson publisher from The American Prospect. Judges honored this year’s finalists for their bravery and commitment to their craft, selecting those whose stories and work will be featured in ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer on June 27. Read about more of them here. The prize is made possible thanks to generous support from two donors – Sidney Hillman Foundation and Abbot Payson Usher Memorial Fund – who generously donated money. The Foundation would like to express our profound thanks for these donors who helped make this award a reality. The Hillman Foundation also awards three other prize programs, the Sidney Edelstein Prize in History of Technology; Sally Hacker Prize for Excellence in Scholarship on Science, Technology and Culture History; and Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize to an Early Career Scholar who presents at SHOT’s annual meeting for the first time.