The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson Wins a George Polk Award

The winners of the annual George Polk Awards in Journalism were announced on Wednesday, honoring reporters from more than a dozen news organizations, including the New Yorker contributing writer Luke Mogelson, who won the National Reporting Award.

Last year, when many American streets became conflict zones, The New Yorker assigned Mogelson, a veteran war correspondent, to cover the unrest—and help decode it. He published three pieces that, collectively, captured the seismic tumult of 2020: the first a vivid chronicle of the racial-justice uprising in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd; the second a portrait of anti-lockdown militias in Michigan; the third an exploration of the battle waged by antifascist activists in Portland against right-wing groups.

Mogelson has reported for The New Yorker from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and across the United States, since 2013. His win marks the magazine’s fifth Polk Award in four years.

The Polk Awards honor the best of investigative and enterprising reporting. Their namesake, a CBS News correspondent, was murdered in 1948 while covering the civil war in Greece.

Here are the pieces for which Mogelson was honored:

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Residents who have been on the front lines for George Floyd are finding their lives—and their city—transformed.

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Groups protesting lockdown measures see the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext for tyranny—and as an opportunity for spreading rage.

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Trump is vowing to designate the movement as a terrorist organization. But its supporters believe that they are protecting their communities—and that confronting fascists with violence can be justified.