2010 Berger Award Winner
Joanna Connors, a reporter at The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, is the winner of the 2010 Mike Berger Award for her series, "The Sheltering Sky," the story of a severely autistic son who kills his mother. The prize, named after the late New York Times reporter Meyer "Mike" Berger, is conferred by the Journalism School for an outstanding piece of local reporting.
Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Journalism School, presented Connors with the award, along with a $1,500 honorarium, on Monday, May 17, during the school’s annual Journalism Day celebration. "This award," said Lemann, "honors exceptional writing about the lives of everyday people."
The Berger Committee, comprised of journalism faculty members, honored Connors’ story, "The Sheltering Sky," and noted: "From the opening words, 'To whom it may concern: if this letter has been opened and is being read, it is because I have been seriously injured or killed by my son,' it was clear that the reporter had a unique story." "Connors," they continued "handled this complex story with in-depth reporting and a well-written narrative that addressed all the medical, legal and personal issues involved in the case."
Connors joined The Plain Dealer in 1983 working as a theater critic, and remained in the arts and entertainment section for 22 years while she worked as an editor and as the paper’s film critic. She moved into longer form journalism in 2005 and three years later wrote "Beyond Rape: A Survivor’s Journey," a first-person account of her search for the man who raped her in 1984.
The mesmerizing written account of her courageous outreach won a series of prestigious awards including the 2009 American Society of News Editors award for non-deadline writing, and the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism, the Dart Award for Coverage of Trauma, and the National Association of Black Journalists award for special projects.
The finalists for this year’s award included Mark Johnson, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Jeff Seidel, the Detroit Free Press.