Best magazine-style, long-form narrative feature in print or digital on an international story
AWARD YEAR: 2023
AWARD NAME: The Ed Cunningham Award 2023
RECIPIENT: Heidi Blake
AFFILIATION: The New Yorker
HONORED WORK: “The Fugitive Princesses of Dubai”
Blake masterfully weaves together the many pieces and people of this complicated and little understood saga of the struggle of four royal women to escape their virtual imprisonment by the ruler of Dubai. It’s a sprawling tale spanning years and continents, taking the reader from the palaces of Dubai to the English countryside. The result is a rich and satisfying story centered on the eternal human desire for freedom. It is also a harrowing illustration of the overwhelming power that can be brought to bear on individuals who flout convention, and gives us a glimpse of the international web of surveillance, complicity and capture that the royal family of the United Arab Emirates was able to deputize even in the comparatively progressive states of the West.
Link to the winning work:
“The Fugitive Princesses of Dubai”
Citation for Excellence:
Edward White and Kang Buseong
Financial Times
“A North Korean Love Story”