Peter Gwin Wins Pulitzer Lowell Thomas Award

Many congratulations to client Peter Gwin, who has just won The Lowell Thomas Award for foreign travel writing for his National Geographic piece "The Telltale Scribes of Timbuktu," which appeared in January of last year. Per the announcement, the piece was praised:  As if the subject was not remote and mysterious enough, the writing here is so filled with atmosphere and memorable people it might have been written by John le Carré. The name itself is a veritable synonym for a place so far removed it epitomizes the other side of the world. And the writer takes us there — with facts, history and unforgettable descriptions.

The piece was written for his Pulitzer Center project Saharan Insecurity, documenting the changing social and political tides of the Sahara region.

The Lowell Thomas Award is sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers and awards more than $18,000 annually in prize money. Begun in 1985, the award recognizes outstanding print, online, broadcast and multimedia works, and also travel photography. You can view a full list of the award winners here.

Peter has been a staff writer at National Geographic since 2003. He has reported on modern pirates in Southeast Asia, a Stone Age graveyard in the Sahara, early tyrannosaurs in Western China, and kung fu masters of China’s Song Mountains among other subjects. His work has been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing 2008 (Houghton Mifflin) and has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for reporting. He began his career teaching English in Botswana and stringing for his hometown paper, theAtlanta Journal Constitution.