Logan Nonfiction Program Announces Fall 2021 Class of Fellows
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 28, 2021
Media Contact: Carly Willsie, carly@logannonfiction.org
Logan Nonfiction Program Announces Incoming Class of Fellows
Diverse Group of Journalists Awarded Virtual Fellowship
Rensselaerville, N.Y. – The Logan Nonfiction Program is pleased to announce its Fall 2021 class, a group comprised of 21 fellows selected from a large applicant pool of nonfiction writers, documentary filmmakers, photojournalists, podcasters and multimedia creators at work on deeply reported projects.
Each fellow will work on long-form print, documentary or audio projects during one of the Institute’s two fall sessions beginning Oct 11. Each five-week session will include one-on-one mentorship, peer-to-peer workshops, self-care programming and frank discussions with industry professionals.
During its six years at the Carey Institute for Global Good in the upstate village of Rensselaerville, the Logan program has hosted more than 200 fellows from around the world. Their print and documentary work has been recognized internationally — including the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.
Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has been virtual.
“Like everyone else, we’ve had to adjust to Covid. But we’re really happy that our virtual program is still attracting such qualified applicants,” said Josh Friedman, the Logan Program’s founding trustee. “We’re very proud of the fellows we’ve picked and look forward to working with them.”
Representing voices from around the world, the new class of fellows includes Shirin Bhandari, a freelance writer, photographer and documentary filmmaker based in Manila whose articles and photographs have been featured by the Women’s Media Center, Slate, CNN and VICE; Kavitha Iyer, a Mumbai-based journalist who has written extensively on India’s farm crisis, land rights, land reform, farmer suicides, distress migration and urbanization; and Charlotte Graham-McLay, a reporter based in Wellington who covers Aotearoa (New Zealand) for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, the BBC and Vice.
This cohort of fellows also includes photographer and filmmaker Roopa Gogineni, whose documentary “The Rebel Puppeteers of Sudan” earned a Rory Peck Award, a One World Media Award and the 20180 Full Frame Award for Best Short; filmmaker Catharine Axley, Regional Finalist for the 2014 Student Academy Awards, official nominee for the David L. Wolper Award at the 2015 International Documentary Association Awards and recipient of Best Indigenous Film at the 2019 BendFilm Festival; Ian Bateson, an American international journalist whose work has been recognized with a Fulbright grant, a Kennan Institute fellowship, an IWM fellowship, an International Reporting Project grant and a Davis Peace fellowship; and international journalist Mariane Pearl, the author of “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl” (Scribner, 2003), which was released as a major feature movie starring Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl.
The fellows of this class will be reporting on a diverse range of topics. Jillian Farmer and Cheryl Upshaw will work on the podcast ”50-Foot Woman,” chronicling Jillian’s diagnosis with acromegaly, a very rare pituitary disease. Reid Davenport will work on the documentary “Life After,” which explores the contradictory political ideologies surrounding medically-assisted suicide and disability. Mike De Socio will work on a book that tells the story of the LGBTQ folks who fought for equality in the Boy Scouts of America.
Primary funding for the Logan Nonfiction Program is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation — empowering world-changing work. Additional foundation support is provided by the Open Society Foundations.
The Logan Nonfiction Program’s mission is to empower writers, documentary filmmakers, photojournalists and multimedia creators to complete the nonfiction that changes our world. Logan Nonfiction fellows are known for bravely revealing inequality, illuminating untold truths and investigating the most pressing issues of the day through long-form narrative.
The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice by empowering world-changing work in investigative journalism, arts and culture, and documentary film.
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens.