Welcome to the Kaplan Award, showcasing student work from the UW Journalism and Public Interest Communication Program.

This site features work from students in our narrative journalism course. Narrative journalism is a genre of feature writing that combines rigorous reporting with fiction-writing techniques and eschews dramatic, news-making events to focus on everyday life and ordinary people.  The genre is not new—some scholars trace its beginnings to the days before mass-circulation newspapers. It flourished spectacularly in the 1960s and 1970s when the so-called “new journalists”—Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, Gloria Emerson, Michael Herr, Lillian Ross, and Hunter S. Thompson—deployed literary techniques to counter the staid reporting of the establishment press. Also known as literary journalism, immersion journalism, creative nonfiction, and even the new, new journalism—narrative journalism has continued to prosper as an alternative to the news industry’s glut of dumbed-down and formulaic news.

For more than a decade, University of Washington students have had the opportunity to try out for themselves this flourishing genre of creative non-fiction writing. The narrative journalism course was developed by Deb Kaplan, who joined the UW Communication Department after a notable career as a journalist at the Detroit Free Press and other daily newspapers, as well as the editor of Detroit Metro, a paper for street people and the underprivileged. After Deb died in 2006, her brother, Gordon, endowed the Kaplan Awards, which are given each year for the top works of narrative journalism by UW students. Deb—who was inspired to “give voice to the voiceless,” as her brother put it—believed in the use of immersion style reporting, and she worked in the fields with migrant workers and slept in a tent in homeless camps while researching her own stories. The class has continued to be taught by UW faculty in Deb’s spirit, and the awards reflect her concerns about social justice and treatment of marginalized people.

The awards are given in five categories:

  1. A story about people on the margins
  2. A story involving an important public issue
  3. A human personality profile (proving that there is a “story” in anyone’s life)
  4. A story that demonstrates an “epiphany” (or a deeper story)
  5. A story with a strong writing style

Here you can see examples of the impressive writing talents of UW students who have been given the opportunity to “think outside the box” and to produce journalism that seeks to demonstrate many of the qualities of literature.

About Deborah Kaplan:

Every year, the Department of Communication gives five outstanding students a Kaplan Award for their excellence in narrative writing in the categories of: people on the margins, strong writing style, a human personality profile, a strong epiphany, and an important public issue. This award is presented in honor of Deborah Kaplan, who was known for her no-quit attitude, relentless investigative reporting, and in-depth interviewing. After joining the faculty of the UW Department of Communication in 2003, Kaplan experienced an apparent heart attack, which led to an unexpected death in 2006 at age 53.

But her legacy in journalism lives on. Born in Chicago to parents who weren’t afraid to participate in avid activism, Kaplan chose a different path than her two siblings who both became attorneys. Kaplan became the Metro Times news editor from 1989 to 1991, after four years at the Detroit Free Press. She was recognized for illuminating the lives of ordinary and overlooked people – sleeping in tents to report about the homeless, working in the fields to write about migrant workers, and sitting through countless patriot group meetings to find out about their politics.

Upon leaving the newspaper industry, Kaplan started a tabloid produced by inner-city teens and returned to college to finish her undergraduate degree. She continued her education by earning a master’s in social science at the University of California-Irvine and a doctorate in journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina. While teaching narrative journalism as an assistant professor at the UW, Kaplan started a website for students to showcase their work – now the goal of the Kaplan Quarterly.

Kaplan Award Stories

From Dirt, Grow Lotuses: On The Ground in Zone 2

By Tony Ngo A blood-soaked towel laid in the middle of the sidewalk. Dried splatters of crimson red in the biting winter air, the once white cloth sat beneath the hum of passing cars and trucks on the overarching highway above— a formidable concrete slab physically dividing Little Saigon from the rest of the Chinatown … Read More

The Growing Pains of Adoption

By Skye Steenberg I would say I don’t remember a lot, but unfortunately, I do. Motel rooms that smelt of day-old pizza. The sound of broken glass, silent tears, and the murmur of 911 on the phone. Beer bottles over-flowing the bathtub and those hideous wooden panels that covered the courtroom. The continuous bobbing of … Read More

Nevada K-4

By Owen Dion Like a mirage in the heat of a desert, a copper-toned gate emerges from surrounding fields of dried-up, flattened earth. Picture the Arch of Constantine— if the Romans had favored beige stucco and palm trees over marble and grandeur. Inside, a gated community of color-coordinated, rust-toned McMansions and streets that end without … Read More

The Second Call

By Navarone Peterson We got two calls that day. Two pieces of news, neither of them good. I say we but it was my mom’s phone that rang. The first piece was about my sister’s dog. She had just found out her pup had diabetes, and it was already too late. It was the end … Read More

Anderson Island

By Molly Miller Multiple weekends each summer of my childhood were spent at my grandparents’ quaint cabin on Anderson Island, or “the island” as we found ourselves nicknaming it. The house on the lake holds multiple generations of memories both joyous and sorrowful. My family’s cabin is a living memory of what has now passed. … Read More

Dongshishi Aly

By Mengqi Shi * In the following text, I’ve decided to add its real name—东四十条—every time I mention that ugly translation.* That street is called 东四十条 [Pronunciation: Dōng Sì Shí Tiáo]. On Google Maps, its name is translated into something ugly and unpleasant—“Dongsishi Aly.” A name with no beauty at all. But it shouldn’t be … Read More

A Treacherous Journey – High School

By Emily Valentine September 2018, I embarked on a treacherous journey – high school. Already, I felt like a bottom feeder, a child amidst young adults. So much to adjust to, and so much to be fearfully excited about. With all of my extra-curriculars and the pressure of whether to fit in or stand out, … Read More

L.A. Skid Row

By Dyson McCutcheon When most people think of California, the first thing that comes to mind is Los Angeles. LA is known for its nonstop chaos—whether something good or bad is happening. Walking through the city, you catch the scents of street food and bus exhaust, hear the constant honking of cars, and the buzz … Read More

Help! My sister passed out!

By Bella Munson My younger sister and I didn’t often get along growing up. We loved each other like family was obligated to but fought more often than not. I often hated her for how happy she was, how easy life and friendship seemed to come to her. As she entered her freshman year of … Read More

The Hum of Looms

By  Alicia Cheng The rhythmic hum of looms, the soft rustling of embroidery threads, and the dim yet warm glow of factory lights—these sounds and images defined my childhood. I grew up in a Chinese embroidery factory, a place that, despite its worn exterior, carried the weight of countless dreams and aspirations. Though my path … Read More
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