The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize for 2012 has been awarded to Jessica Goodman, Stephen Fried announced on behalf of the former students of Nora Magid.
A Penn senior studying Creative Writing, with a minor in Gender, Culture and Society, Jessica Goodman has been an intern and researcher for Rolling Stone magazine and the editor-in-chief of 34th Street magazine and its blog, Under The Button. She began in journalism at Penn as a freshman copy editor at Street and later food editor, and she spent a summer at Estee Lauder working on a breast cancer awareness campaign. Then, as a junior, she won the prestigious RealArts@PENN internship—allowing her to work at Rolling Stone, and also do research for author and Inside Edition TV producer Charles Lachman. As editor of Street, she managed a staff of 30 and wrote features, including “There’s Something About Molly,” an excellent in-depth look at the use of the drug MDMA among college students.
A native of Muttontown, NY on Long Island and a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, Jessica is a dogged reporter, a stylish writer and a smart, intuitive and generous editor and colleague—both at Street and in her non-fiction writing classes. She clearly has the passion, professionalism and curiosity that Nora Magid so valued in non-fiction writers and editors. While her mentorship will begin immediately, she will receive her award at a reception in New York which is being organized for March.
Goodman was recommended to the Nora Magid Prize committee by Anthony DeCurtis. The other finalists for the award were Katie Sanders, Brian Kotloff and Samantha Sharf. Our thanks to all the Penn seniors who applied for the award this year, to the Penn faculty who wrote recommendations, and to everyone who has generously supported the prize fund.
About the Prize: Nora Magid was an extraordinarily gifted and giving teacher of non-fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania from the mid-1970s until her death in 1991. During those years, she nurtured an amazing number of students, many of whom went on to some of the top jobs in magazines, newspapers, book publishing and broadcasting. In 2003, a group of "Nora-ites" came together to create The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize, which is now given every year to a senior at the University of Pennsylvania who shows exceptional ability and promise in non-fiction writing and editing, and who would benefit most from combined mentorship of Nora's network of former students and their colleagues. The prize is $1000, which is used as a stipend for transportation, lodging and meals as the student travels to New York, Washington and elsewhere to develop professional contacts. The Nora Prize is given in partnership with the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, the Daily Pennsylvanian and the Kelly Writers House.
Where our previous winners are now:
*Matt Flegenheimer, 2011: metro reporter, New York Times
* Jamie France, 2010: executive assistant to NBC's President of Entertainment and Digital Networks/Integrated Media; former executive assistant to Today Show executive producer, former intern at The New Yorker.
* Gabe Oppenheim, 2009: published first novel, How Delightful is the Day, freelance writer; former intern Washington Post, Esquire
* Jessica Sidman, 2008: reporter at Bisnow Media, editor of DiningBisnow and runs popular blog Frozen Fix; former intern at Washingtonian and Dallas Morning News
* Jason Schwartz, 2007: senior editor, Boston Magazine
* Melody Joy Kramer, 2006: associate producer, "Fresh Air"; former producer at "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," Kroc Fellow at NPR
* Ashley Parker, 2005: campaign reporter, New York Times; former assistant to columnist Maureen Dowd
* Rebecca Klein, 2004: freelancer for Brides and Everyday with Rachel Ray; former associate editor, Quick & Simple
* Dan Kaplan, 2004: product marketing manager, Twilio, former freelance tech writer and director of marketing at VentureBeat
The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize Scholarship Advisory Committee is: Stephen Fried, author, adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 215-592-1662, stephenfried@comcast.net; Eliot Kaplan, executive director, talent acquisition, Hearst Magazines, 212-649-2064 ekaplan@hearst.com; Miriam Arond, director Good Housekeeping Research Institute; Barri Bernstein, executive director, Tennessee Bar Foundation; David Borgenicht, president and publisher, Quirk Books, author; Sandee Brawarsky, author, book columnist, The Jewish Week, editor Text/Context: Fresh Encounters with Jewish Tradition; Jean Chatzky, author, Today Show financial correspondent, Newsweek magazine personal finance contributor; Lisa DePaulo, correspondent, GQ, contributing editor, Elle; Stefan Fatsis, author, sports commentator, All Things Considered, NPR; Loren Feldman, online editor, small business, New York Times; Lisa Green, head of communications, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, former NBC News legal analyst and Weekend Today senior producer; Randall Lane, editor-in chief, Forbes magazine, author; John Prendergast, editor-in-chief, Pennsylvania Gazette; Joel Siegel, head writer and producer, ABC Weekend World News
Tuesday, January 31, A poetry reading by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe. Poet, translator and essayist, Murat Nemet-Nejat's most recent work includes the poem The Spiritual Life of Replicants (Talisman House, 2011), the translation of the Turkish poet Seyhan Erozçelik's Rosestrikes and Coffee Grinds (Talisman House, 2010), and the memoir/essay "Istanbul Noir" (in Istanbul: Metamorphoses In an Imperial City, Talisman House, 2011). Nemet-Nejat's translation of the Turkish poet Birhan Keskin's book Y'ol (Ro(a)de) will be published in 2012. He is presently working on "Things," part VI of the seven part poem, "The Structure of Escape," of which The Spiritual Life of Replicants is part V.
