Freelance Journalists Latria Graham and Zaydee Sanchez Awarded 2025 American Mosaic Journalism Prize

A migrant farming community comes together to rebuild after a historic flooding. A group of transgender Latinx people find refuge and community in one another. An homage to the remarkable legacy of an all-Black caddie corps, whose members guided golf legends to victory while their own excellence was overlooked for generations.

These are some of the stories brought to light by freelance journalists Zaydee Sanchez and Latria Graham, the latest recipients of Heising-Simons Foundation’s American Mosaic Journalism Prize.

The American Mosaic Journalism Prize is awarded annually for excellence in long-form, narrative, or deep reporting about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the United States. Each winner receives an unrestricted cash prize of $100,000 in recognition of their exceptional work and promise. A panel of 10 judges—including journalists from the Associated Press, NBC News, NPR, Columbia Journalism Review, and The 19th News, among others—selected this year’s recipients. The award recognizes journalism’s ability to foster greater understanding and recognizes the important work of freelance journalists in our media ecosystem.

“It’s hard to remember a time when journalism and journalists have been more vulnerable. Facing escalating threats to their credibility and very lives, it is becoming increasingly hard for them to rely on the shield of the First Amendment, and a common societal understanding of truth. These perils are magnified for freelance journalists who lack the protections afforded to staff reporters at established news outlets, even as their stories of misrepresented and underrepresented people are more salient than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of and more grateful to our Mosaic recipients, especially now when their searing journalism is, more than ever, an act of courage.”

Liz Simons
Heising-Simons Foundation’s Chair of the Board

Latria Graham is a writer, storyteller, and cultural critic dedicated to covering under-resourced and misrepresented communities in her home region of the American South. A fifth-generation farmer, she is from Spartanburg, South Carolina, and continues to live in the state. Ms. Graham’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Outside, Garden & Gun, and other outlets. Her forthcoming book, “Uneven Ground: A Memoir of a Family, a Land, and a Culture in Peril,” about her attempt to preserve her family’s century-old farm and sense of rootedness, will be published by Mariner, a division of HarperCollins.

“Ultimately, I tell stories about all of the things we—Black people and, by extension, humanity—have survived. Along the way, I hope that I’m challenging assumptions, highlighting connections, and providing questions that readers can use to initiate change.”

Latria Graham
2025 American Mosaic Journalism Prize Recipient

Zaydee Sanchez is a Mexican-American visual journalist, documentary photographer, and writer whose coverage highlights the lives of labor workers, migrants, and other populations often underrepresented in media. She is based in Los Angeles, California, and is originally from Tulare, an agricultural town in the San Joaquin Valley that inspires much of her work. Ms. Sanchez’s photography and words have been published in The New York Times, ProPublica, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, and palabra., among others.

“This year, we walk into the unknown, a path that many in my community fear. We do not know what lies ahead or who will be impacted. In this uncertainty, I feel a deep responsibility to keep the focus on the migrant community.”

Zaydee Sanchez
2025 American Mosaic Journalism Prize Recipient

Ms. Graham and Ms. Sanchez join a distinguished group of past recipients of this prestigious award from across the country, including Cerise Castle, Darcy Courteau, David Dennis Jr., Valeria Fernández, Michelle García, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Ryan Christopher Jones, Tamir Kalifa, Jaeah Lee, Dara T. Mathis, Rebecca Nagle, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Abe Streep, and Carvell Wallace.

2025 Judges

Katherine Boo

Independent Writer

Graham Lee Brewer

Race and Ethnicity,
Associated Press

Sewell Chan

Executive Editor,
Columbia Journalism Review

Benjamin Davis

Chair, Department of Multimedia Journalism,
Morgan State University

Antonia Hylton

Correspondent,
NBC News

Ryan Christopher Jones

Photojournalist, PhD Student in Anthropology
Harvard University

Wesley Lowery

Executive Editor,
The Investigative Reporting Workshop

Kevin Merida

Independent Journalist

B.A. Parker

Co-Host,
NPR

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter,
The 19th News

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