2015 Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism

The Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism recognizes the best environmental reporting on the North American West — from Canada through the United States to Mexico. The annual Knight-Risser Prize Symposium brings journalists, researchers, scholars, and policy-makers together with public audiences to explore new ways to ensure that sophisticated environmental reporting thrives in the West.

Eligibility and How to Enter

The Knight-Risser Prize is given for journalism in any media that best illuminates an environmental issue or story in western Canada, the United States or Mexico. Entries are not limited to journalists from western news organizations.

The Knight-Risser prize places a premium on stories that expose undiscovered or covered-up problems, explain detailed solutions in ways that can be put to use, and help readers understand the broader significance of the issues being covered, beyond the immediate details of the stories at hand.
The North American West, for the purposes of this award, includes the United States west of the Mississippi River, Canada west of Ontario, including Nunavut, and all of Mexico.

Eligibility and Selection

Journalists working for U.S., Canadian or Mexican newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online sites accessible to the general public are eligible to apply, as are freelancers.
Those whose work appears in publications or programs connected to government agencies, advocacy organizations, or to business or trade organizations with a financial stake in environmental issues, are not eligible.
Entries must be predominantly about an environmental subject occurring in or affecting the North American West, and must have been published, broadcast or posted during the calendar year of the current prize. Series that began in one year and ended in another are eligible but may be entered only once.
The Knight-Risser Prize administrators and steering committee are the final authority for determining whether an entry is eligible. The entry fee of any entrant deemed ineligible will be refunded.
Instructions and an online entry form are now available for the 2015 Knight-Risser Prize. The deadline for entries to be submitted is Sunday, March 15, 2015.