PORTLAND, MAINE — The Provincetown Independent won 13 awards at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s annual convention on March 29, including five first-place prizes.
Reporter Sophie Mann-Shafir won first prize for government reporting in weekly newspapers for her series on a campaign by the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers’ Association to persuade people to vote in Truro regardless of where they live full-time. (“TPRTA Misled Members on Voter Registration; Town Meeting Postponed,” “Special Town Meeting Will Wait for Clean Voter Rolls,” “35 Challenged Voters Are Now Off Truro Rolls,” “Final Challenges End in Three Upheld Voter Registrations.”)
Mann-Shafir won another first prize for reporting on religious issues in weekly newspapers for her series on a community effort to buy the Chapel on the Pond in North Truro to prevent the eviction of a Jamaican congregation that worships there. (“Jamaican Congregation Told to Leave Truro Chapel,” “Outer Cape Community Shows Up for Truro Congregation,” “Truro Conservation Trust Buys Chapel for $1.5 Million.”)
Mann-Shafir left the Independent last September to accept a Fulbright scholarship; she is currently studying access to abortion care in Sicily.
Reporter William von Herff won first prize for environmental reporting in weekly newspapers with circulation over 5,000 for his story on the death of a young female right whale off the coast of Nantucket. (“Entanglement Leads to Death of Young Right Whale.”)
Editorial cartoonist Adam Graham, who publishes under the nom de plume A. Crock, won first prize for Illustrations or Infographics in weekly newspapers for his two-page illustration in the Indie’s end-of-year nostalgia issue, a series of imagined Postcards From Long Point Village.
Publisher Teresa Parker, staff writer Edouard Fontenot, and designer Susan Abbott won first prize among weekly newspapers for the Indie’s living section, “Inside/Out.”
Former staff photographer Elias Duncan won second prize among weeklies for his photo story about Stormy Mayo and Laura Ludwig’s garden, “The End Is Only the Beginning of a Garden’s Path to Summer Glory.”
Publisher Teresa Parker also won second prize among weeklies for the Independent’s email newsletter, which goes out every Thursday and Saturday.
The paper took home six third-place awards, including one for reporter Sam Pollak’s crime and courts reporting (“Innkeeper Paul Schofield Is Charged With Assaulting J-1 Worker,” “Police Failures Short-Circuit Justice for Abused J-1 Students”), one for William von Herff’s climate change and weather reporting (“Climate, Not Wind Farms, Is Called Threat to Whales”), and one for reporter Christine Legere’s spot news reporting (“Airman’s Death Is Both Protest and a Loss”).
Elias Schisgall, a 2023 Indie summer fellow, won a third prize in history reporting for his story on the women’s chapter of the Provincetown Ku Klux Klan (“Archives Reveal Clues to Provincetown’s Ku Klux Klan”), while associate editors John D’Addario and Paul Sullivan and designer Susan Abbott won third prize among weeklies for the Independent’s arts section, “Arts and Minds.”
Finally, a multimedia team of Mann-Shafir, Duncan, and photographer Nancy Bloom won third place among all publications in New England for their work covering the eviction of the Jamaican congregation at the Chapel on the Pond, which included print stories, video reporting, and photography.
