2024 Year in Review

This year, we received nearly 300 applications and awarded 15 New America Fellowships. With this dynamic Fellows class, New America is supporting 12 book projects, two films, and one podcast. Meet the Class of 2024 and learn more about the applicant pool by reading our Class of 2024 Who Applied? report.

Katie Engelhart was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for her work in the New York Times. Keri Blakinger was nominated in the same category for her work with the Marshall Project and the New York Times.

Sugarcane, a film by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature Film Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. The film also won Best Political Documentary and Best True Crime Documentary at the Critics Choice Awards. The film has been nominated for many other awards, including six other Critics Choice Awards, four Cinema Eye Honors, three International Documentary Awards, and a National Board of Review award. The film has been reviewed in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Variety, the Seattle Times, and RogerEbert.com. Hyperallergic listed the film as one of the “25 Best Films of 2024.” The film was also one of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Movies of 2024." Sugarcane was purchased by National Geographic for distribution and is now available to stream on Disney+.

JoeBill Muñoz’s film, The Strike, was an official selection for the HotDocs Film Festival, where it premiered in March. The film was reviewed in Variety, and Muñoz and his co-director, Lucas Guilkey, were interviewed about the film on WBUR’s Here and Now, on KQED’s Forum, and in Documentary Magazine. The film will premiere on PBS’s Independent Lens in February 2025.

Xinyan Yu’s film, Made in Ethiopia, was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, where it was awarded the Special Jury Mention for a Documentary Feature. The film was reviewed in Moveable Feast, Film Review Daily, and Variety. Yu and her co-director, Max Duncan, were interviewed about the film in Filmmaker Magazine.

This year, New America’s Fellows published six books and one podcast. The projects focused on fascinating topics, including climate change, sex testing in sports, constitutional sheriffs, and endangered languages. As always, our New America Fellows bring challenging issues to the forefront of public discourse.

Jonathan Blitzer published Everyone Who is Gone is Here in January, and the book was reviewed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic, among others. The book was named one of the “10 Best Books of 2024” by the New York Times, listed as one of the “50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024” by the Washington Post, and included on Barack Obama’s summer reading list. Everyone Who is Gone is Here was also longlisted for the Bailie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize.

Ross Perlin’s book, Language City, was published in February and reviewed widely, including in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, and The Spectator. Perlin was interviewed about the book in Documented NY, on the Brian Lehrer Show, and on The City podcast. The book was awarded the British Academy Book Prize.

Abraham Lustgarten’s book, On the Move, was also published this year in March. The book was excerpted in The Atlantic and reviewed in the New York Times, Science, and Undark Magazine. Lustgarten was interviewed about the book on Fresh Air, KQED’s Forum, Amanpour, and ABC News.

Rose Eveleth released their podcast, Tested, in collaboration with NPR and the CBC in July. The podcast was reviewed in the New Scientist. Eveleth was interviewed about the podcast on KQED’s Forum; Scientific American’s podcast, Science Quickly; and on WESA’s Morning Edition. The podcast was included on The Week’s list of “5 insightful podcasts you may have missed this summer.”

Christine Rosen published The Extinction of Experience in September. The book was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others, and was listed as one of the “Best Nonfiction Books of 2024” by Esquire. Rosen was interviewed on KERA’s Think about the book.

In October, The Highest Law in the Land was published by Jessica Pishko. The book was excerpted in Rolling Stone and reviewed in the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, and the Texas Observer. Pishko was interviewed in many outlets about the book, including Fresh Air, WABE’s Closer Look, the American Bar Association Journal, and The Appeal.

Atossa A. Abrahamian published The Hidden Globe in October, and the book was named one of the “10 Best Books of the Year” by the Washington Post and one of the “100 Notable Books of 2024” by the New York Times. The book was reviewed in The Nation, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among others. The Hidden Globe received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Abrahamian was interviewed about the book on KPCW’s Mountain Money and on Vox.com.

• Patricia Evangelista’s book, Some People Need Killing, won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. The book was also longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
• Tanisha C. Ford won an NAACP Image Award for her book, Our Secret Society.
• Zeke Faux’s book, Number Go Up, was nominated for an Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime.
• Caitlin Dickerson wrote “Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap,” a cover story for The Atlantic, about migrants’ harrowing journey through Columbia and Panama.
• Rozina Ali wrote “Raised in the West Bank, Shot in Vermont” for the New York Times Magazine about Palestinian students shot in 2023.
• Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe was adapted into a television series by FX. The book was also listed as one of the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” by the New York Times.