Cerise Castle and Carvell Wallace Recipients of Prestigious 2023 American Mosaic Journalism Prize
The Heising-Simons Foundation announced freelance journalists Cerise Castle and Carvell Wallace are the recipients of the 2023 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which includes an unrestricted cash prize of $100,000 for each winner. This is the largest dollar amount given annually for a journalism prize in the United States.
The prize is awarded for excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the United States. It recognizes journalism’s ability to foster understanding and aims to support freelance journalists. The prize is based on confidential nominations invited from more than 150 leaders in journalism throughout the country. A panel of 10 judges—including journalists from NBC News, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, among others—selected the recipients.
Castle and Wallace join a distinguished group of freelance journalists, alongside past winners Ryan Christopher Jones, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Jaeah Lee, Valeria Fernández, Abe Streep, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Rebecca Nagle, Darcy Courteau, David Dennis Jr. and Michelle García.
Castle’s work has appeared in The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times and MTV, among other outlets. She has produced podcast series for Audible, iHeartMedia and Wondery, as well as segments for VICE News, NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Marketplace.”
“All too often, the issues that affect low-income, Black and Brown communities are severely under-covered and ignored by newsrooms,” said Castle. “People need to know that these stories—our stories—are valid and deserve to be told. As a child, I grew up hearing about deputy gangs in L.A. They’ve existed since the early 1960s, yet very few reporters were writing about them. It’s stories like these that reveal broader trends and uncomfortable realities that impact us all.”
Before beginning his writing and freelance reporting career, Wallace spent 15 years in the nonprofit sector doing direct case management and program design for incarcerated and foster care youth. He is currently working on a memoir, Another Word For Love, on childhood trauma and recovery, and co-creating a podcast with Resham Mantri about intimacy and liberation called “Everyone Is Dying: a Podcast about Love.”
“I’ve long thought that the only thing that really matters is how we treat each other,” said Wallace. “I view everything through this lens, whether it’s sports, culture, politics, art or film. It’s why I focus my writing on our shared humanity, and the struggles we go through to find love and liberation.”
For more information about the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, visit https://www.hsfoundation.org/prize.
The Heising-Simons Foundation launched the American Mosaic Journalism Prize in 2018 as part of its work supporting journalism as an essential arm of U.S. democracy. It is part of a portfolio of journalism grants supporting and elevating underrepresented voices, groups and content in journalism, which includes support of TransLash, Futuro Media, Journal-isms, The 19th, Our Body Politic and the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, among others.