Press Contact: Clare Lefebure
clare@nlgja.org
WASHINGTON, DC (August 4, 2023) – Today, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+Journalists and The Curve Foundation announced the recipients of the Curve Award for Emerging Journalists. The recipients of the 2023 Curve Award for Emerging Journalists are Christiane Cordero, Daric L. Cottingham, Hannah Schoenbaum, Salgu Wissmath, and Sarah Youngblood Gregory. The award, sponsored by the Curve Foundation, provides financial support to emerging journalists whose work fosters fair and accurate coverage and elevates the voices of LGBTQ+ women, trans and nonbinary people.
“We are immensely proud to honor these exceptional recipients who are shaping the future of LGBTQ+ journalism,” said NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists Executive Director Adam Pawlus. “As we celebrate their achievements, we also look forward to the continued impact they will undoubtedly bring to the field, inspiring an emerging generation of journalists to fearlessly tell the stories that matter most.”
The Curve Award for Emerging Journalists includes a $5,000 cash award and access to unique professional development opportunities. The awardees will form a cohort and work with mentors to build skills and foster an active support network. The Curve Award for Emerging Journalists will be presented annually and nominations for the 2024 award will become available next Spring.
Christiane Cordero (she/her) is a general assignment reporter with ABC7 Los Angeles. She covers everything from high-profile celebrity court cases, to the city’s homelessness crisis, to the writers’ strike. Her reporting during the 2022 LA Pride Parade helped earn the station a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award. In June 2023, Cordero co-hosted the LA Pride Parade for ABC7, then covered San Francisco Pride two weeks later for Pride Across America, a five-hour long special that aired on ABC News Live and Hulu. In addition to her home state of California, Cordero has also lived in North Carolina, Connecticut and Minnesota. She was the first reporter to speak on camera with Minneapolis’ mayor and police chief following George Floyd’s murder. Cordero and her wife, Alli, both played college soccer. Together they have two dogs, Moose and Rue.
Daric L. Cottingham (she/her) is a multimedia journalist who currently covers the intersection of news, entertainment, and culture at Reckon News. She is a proud Southern Black queer, trans woman based in Los Angeles, holding a mass communications degree from Prairie View A&M University in Texas and a master’s in Sports & Entertainment journalism from the University of Southern California. Previously, she worked as a multiplatform editor at the LA Times, in podcast editorial for Spotify, and freelancing for publications like BuzzFeed and The Washington Post. In 2022, Cottingham launched her music column, Playlist Q, with Toronto-based LGBTQIA+ publication Xtra Magazine. Beyond her portfolio, she does advocacy work as a general board member of NABJLA, striving to make the industry more inclusive. Sneakers, animation, gaming, and sports take up her time when she’s not focused on storytelling.
Hannah Schoenbaum (she/her) is a state government and politics reporter for The Associated Press in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a Report for America corps member. Beyond covering her state’s legislature, courts and elections, she helps lead AP’s LGBTQ+ legislative coverage across all states, producing her own enterprise stories and assisting other reporters with their coverage. Just a year into her current role, she has become one of the AP’s go-to reporters for richly told stories about the far-reaching human impact of these policies. She previously covered Congress for The Hill and the Albany Times Union while a graduate student at Northwestern University and was a regular contributor at USA Today. An alumna of Boston University, she got her start in state government reporting as the Massachusetts State House correspondent for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She currently volunteers as a part-time journalism instructor at a high school in Durham, North Carolina.
Salgu Wissmath (they/them) is a nonbinary Korean American photographer from Sacramento, CA. They are currently a Hearst Photo Fellow at the San Francisco Chronicle and will be starting the 2nd year of their fellowship at the San Antonio Express-News in August. They are dedicated to decolonizing visual storytelling by engaging in ethical storytelling by and for people of color and the queer community. Their personal work explores the intersections of mental health, queer identity, and faith from a conceptual documentary approach. Salgu studied at U.C. Berkeley and Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Previously they interned at The Kodiak Daily Mirror, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and The Courier Journal. Their work has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, High Country News, Cal Matters, among others. They are a 2022 Gwen Ifill Fellow, 2021 California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow, and 2017 Women Photograph Mentee, as well as an alumnus of the Chips Quinn Scholar Program, AAJA Voices, Eddie Adams Workshop XXXI, and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists’ CONNECT Student Journalism Project. Salgu was recognized as AAJA’s 2022 Emerging Journalist of the Year. They are the Communications Director for Diversify Photo, a core team member with Ethical Narrative, and a member of AAJA, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, Women Photograph, Queer the Lens, and Authority Collective.
Sara Youngblood Gregory (she/they) is a lesbian journalist and author of The Polyamory Workbook. A former staff writer for Vox Media’s POPSUGAR, her work has been featured in the New York Times, HuffPost, Vice, Cosmopolitan, and many others. They were the 2023 Spring News and Narrative Fellow for TransLash Media.
For more information about awards, visit www.nlgja.org.
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About NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists:
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists is a journalist-led association working within the news media to advance fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ+ communities and issues. We promote diverse and inclusive workplaces by holding the industry accountable and providing education, professional development and mentoring. For more information, visit www.nlgja.org.
About The Curve Foundation:
Built on 30 years of Curve, the world’s best-selling lesbian magazine, The Curve Foundation works to empower and amplify the voices of the Curve Community – lesbians, queer women, trans women, and non-binary people of all races, ages, and abilities. The Curve Foundation’s initial programs include: the Curve Award for Emerging Journalists, created to recognize emerging journalists and raise the visibility of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people; and the Curve Archive, a permanent and searchable archive of 30 years of magazine issues. For more information, visit thecurvefoundation.org