Gayle Reaves – författare

This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2014 BestAmerican Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest, run by theMayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The event is hostedby the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism atthe University of North Texas. The contest honors exemplarynarrative work and encourages narrative nonfiction storytelling atnewspapers across the United States. First place winner: Dan Barry, “The Boys in the Bunkhouse,” published by The New York Times, exposed thirty years of physical and mental abuse of intellectually disabled men living in an Iowa group home.Second place: Christopher Goffard, “The Favor,” published bythe Los Angeles Times, describes the plea bargain sentence of the son of a former California assembly speaker, after the son pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and whose prison sentence was later reduced by then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.Third place: Stephanie McCrummen, “A Father’s Scars,” published by the Washington Post, about a Virginia state senator one year after he was stabbed multiple times by his mentally ill son before he son killed himself.Runners-up include Nathan Bomey, John Gallagher and MarkStryker, “How Detroit was Reborn” (Detroit Free Press); Monica Hesse, “Love and Fire” (Washington Post); Sarah Schweitzer, “Chasing Bayla” (Boston Globe); Sarah Kleiner Varble, “Then the Walls Closed In” (TheVirginian Pilot); Janie Bryant and Joanne Kimberlin, “Dangerous Minds” (The Virginian Pilot); Molly Harbarger, “Fred Nelligan” (Oregonian); and Mark Johnson, “Murray’s Problem” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, an event hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas.First place winner: Stephanie McCrummen, “An American Void” (The Washington Post), focused on the friends of the alleged murderer of nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, North Carolina.-Second place: Christopher Goffard, “Fleeing Syria: The Choice” (Los Angeles Times), is about a former dressmaker from Syria gaining asylum in Sweden for her family, but her husband and children were still in Turkey.-Third place: Sarah Schweitzer, “The Life and Times of Strider Wolf” (Boston Globe), documented the difficult life of a six-year-old boy and his brother, who were rescued from near-fatal abuse and sent to live with their grandparents in campgrounds in Maine.-Runners-up include Cynthia Hubert, “Genny’s World” (Sacramento Bee); Michael M. Phillips, “Inside an FBI Hostage Crisis” (The Wall Street Journal); Mark Johnson, “Patient, Surgeon Work Together” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); Howard Reich, “Norman Malone’s Quest” (Chicago Tribune); John Woodrow Cox, “Telling JJ” (The Washington Post); Maria Cramer, “The Boy Who Burned Inside” (Boston Globe); and Gina Barton, “Unsolved: A Murdered Teen, a 40-year Mystery” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, an event hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas.First place winner: Terrence McCoy, “It Was an Accident, Baby” (The Washington Post), relates how a family in Alabama coped after the family’s four-year-old accidentally killed his nine-year-old sister.Second place: Hannah Dreier, “A Child’s Scraped Knee” (Associated Press), which depicts how medical supply shortages in Venezuela turned a simple injury into a life-threatening condition for a three-year-old.Third place: Billy Baker, “The Power of Will” (The Boston Globe), focuses on a family’s search for a cure for their son’s rare form of cancer, which led them to a maverick doctor.Runners-up include John Woodrow Cox, “A Marine’s Conviction” (The Washington Post); Christopher Goffard, “Framed” (The Los Angeles Times); Steve Thompson, “The Long Way Home” (The Dallas Morning-News); N. R. Kleinfield, “Fraying at the Edges” (The New York Times); Anna Kuchment and Steve Thompson, “Seismic Denial” (The Dallas Morning-News); Lauren Caruba, “55 Minutes” (The Houston Chronicle); and Lisa Wangsness, “In Search of Sanctuary” (The Boston Globe).

This anthology collects the eleven winners of the 2018 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, an event hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas.First place winner: Kale Williams, ""The Loneliest Polar Bear"" (The Oregonian), relates the tale of Nora, a baby polar bear raised by humans in a zoo after being abandoned by her mother.Second place: Patricia Callahan, ""Doomed by Delay"" (Chicago Tribune), reveals the experiences of Illinois families with children diagnosed with Krabbe—a deadly disease that healthcare professionals could have screened for at birth, and ultimately treated, if it weren't for government bureaucracy.Third place: Christopher Goffard, ""Dirty John"" (Los Angeles Times), is an investigative story that explores the dynamics of domestic violence with a nuanced, psychologically complex narrative of family and survival.Runners-up include John Woodrow Cox, ""Twelve Seconds of Gunfire"" (The Washington Post); Tom Hallman Jr., ""His Heart, Her Hands"" (The Oregonian); Jenna Russell, ""The Last Refugee"" (The Boston Globe); Lisa Gartner and Zachary T. Sampson, ""Wrong Way"" (Tampa Bay Times); Casey Parks, ""About a Boy"" (The Oregonian); Jennifer Emily, ""Hope for the Rest of Us"" (The Dallas Morning News); Kent Babb, ""There's Nowhere to Run"" (The Washington Post); and Lane DeGregory, ""The House on the Corner"" (Tampa Bay Times).

This anthology collects the winners of the 2019 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Eli Saslow, 'It Was My Job, and I Didn't Find Him' (The Washington Post), narrates the life of a former officer at the Parkland high school shooting. Second place: Elizabeth Bruenig, 'What Do We Owe Her Now?' (The Washington Post), is the story of a high school rape victim who received no justice. Third place: Hannah Dreier, 'The Disappeared' (ProPublica), follows a mother who lost her teenage son to gang violence.Runners-up include Jamie Thompson, 'Standoff' (The Dallas Morning News); Lane DeGregory, 'Lincoln's Shot' (Tampa Bay Times); Jenna Russell, 'The World, the Stage, the Way Ahead' (The Boston Globe); Evan Allen, 'Under a Dark Sky, a Baby is Born' (The Boston Globe); Lisa Gartner, 'She's Taught at the Parkland High School for 14 Years. Can She Go Back?' (Tampa Bay Times); Claire McNeill, 'So You Remember the Student Who Was Shot at FSU? He's Pretty Sure We've All Moved On' (Tampa Bay Times); and Bethany Barnes, 'Targeted' (The Oregonian).

This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2020 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Christopher Goffard, 'Detective Trapp' (Los Angeles Times) is about a complicated murder investigation and its human impact. Second place: Annie Gowen, 'Left Behind: American Farm Families in Crisis during Trump's Trade War' (The Washington Post) tells about a despairing farmer's suicide and aftermath. Third place: Jennifer Berry Hawes and Stephen Hobbs, 'It's Time for You to Die' (Post & Courier) presents a gut-wrenching drama of America's deadliest episode of prison violence.Runners-up include Peter Jamison, 'The Confession' (The Washington Post); Mark Johnson, 'House Calls and Rarest of Diseases' (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); Nestor Ramos, 'At the Edge of a Warming World' (Boston Globe); Noelle Crombie, Kale Williams, and Beth Nakamura, 'No Mercy' (The Oregonian); Tara Duggan and Jason Fagone, 'The Fisherman's Tale' (San Francisco Chronicle); Jenna Russell, 'Brilliant, Faithful, Undaunted' (Boston Globe); and Charles Scudder, 'Guardians: When Evil Came Through the Door' (Dallas Morning News).

This anthology collects the nine winners of the 2021 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First-place winner: Greg Jaffe and his three-part series on the pandemic, beginning with “The Pandemic Hit and This Car Became Home for a Family of Four” (The Washington Post). Second place: Hannah Dreier with “The Worst-Case Scenario” (The Washington Post). Third place: Leonora LaPeter Anton, Kavitha Surana, and Kathryn Varn with “Death at Freedom Square” (Tampa Bay Times). Runners-up include Rory Linnane, “Maricella’s Last Breath” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); Hannah Dreier, “Tatiana’s Luck” (The Washington Post); Deborah Vankin, “This 81-Year-Old was L.A.’s Most Devoted Museum-Goer until COVID-19” (Los Angeles Times); Lauren Caruba, “Night Shift” (San Antonio Express News); Mark Johnson, “Saving Raynah’s Brain” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); and John Woodrow Cox, “They Depended on Their Parents for Everything” (The Washington Post).

This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2022 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Jason Fagone, “The Jessica Simulation: Love and Loss in the Age of A.I.,” about one man’s attempt to still communicate with his dead fiancÉe (San Francisco Chronicle). Second place: Jenna Russell, Penelope Overton, and David Abel, “The Lobster Trap” (The Boston Globe and Portland Press Herald). Third place: Jada Yuan, “Discovering Dr. Wu” (The Washington Post).Runners-up include Lane DeGregory, “Who Wants to Be a Cop? (Tampa Bay Times); Christopher Goffard, “The Trials of Frank Carson” (Los Angeles Times); Evan Allen, “Under the Wheel” (The Boston Globe); Mark Johnson, “A Wisconsin Mom Gave Birth in a COVID-19 Coma before Slipping to the Brink of Death” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); Annie Gowen, “A Dance, Not a War” (The Washington Post); Peter Jamison, “They’d Battled Addiction Together. Then Lockdowns became a ‘Recipe for Death’” (The Washington Post); and Douglas Perry, “The Obsession” (The Oregonian / Oregon Live).

This anthology collects the nine winners of the 2023 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Jennifer Berry Hawes for “Captive No More: One SC Man’s Journey to Freedom after Years in Modern-Day Slavery,” about how a white restaurant manager held an intellectually disabled Black man in slavery-like conditions for almost six years (Post and Courier, Charleston, SC). Second place: Andrea Ball and Will Carless for “American Flashpoint: A Drag Show, a Protest and a Line of Guns” (USA Today). Third place: Thomas Curwen for “A World Gone Mad” (Los Angeles Times). Runners-up include Andrew Ford, “Blood and Money” (Arizona Republic); Dan Woike, “Darvin Ham Survived the Streets, a Stray Bullet and Intense Grief to Coach the Lakers” (Los Angeles Times); William Wan, “Is This What a Good Mother Looks Like?” (The Washington Post); Annie Gowen, “A Jan. 6 Pastor Divides His Tennessee Community with Increasingly Extremist Views” (The Washington Post); and Edgar Sandoval, “Uvalde Stories” (New York Times); and Lane DeGregory, “To End His Wife’s Suffering, He Shot Her. Was It Mercy or Murder?” (Tampa Bay Times).

This anthology collects the eight winners of the 2024 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The event is hosted by the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas. The conference launched the competition to honor exemplary narrative work and to encourage narrative nonfiction storytelling at newspapers across the United States. First place winner: Bridget Grumet for “The Butterfly Effect,” a series examining both the problem of teen dating violence and the operation of the Texas prison system through the lens of three people whose lives were changed by the 2003 murder of a 15 year old (Austin American-Statesman). Second place: Keri Blakinger for “The Dungeons & Dragons Players of Death Row,” a story of how some prisoners have dealt with the extreme isolation of Texas’s death row by developing their own version of the hugely popular fantasy game (New York Times). Third place: Edgar Sandoval for “Two Children, a Burst of Gunfire and the Year That Came After,” a moving depiction of the ongoing recovery of two fourth graders seriously wounded in the Uvalde school massacre (New York Times). Runners-up include Peter Jamison, “The Revolt of Christian Homeschoolers” (The Washington Post); Sydney Brownstone, “Lost Patients” (Seattle Times); Suzette Hackney, “American Contagion” (USA TODAY); Connor Sheets, “From a One-Way Flight to Sleeping in a Parking Lot” (Los Angeles Times); and Rick Jervis, “We Don’t Seem to Learn” (USA TODAY).