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You have until August 31st to submit to the 2025 CIBAs!

Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (Better known by her Pen Name, Nellie Bly) created a new brand of Investigative Journalism. Best known for beating Jules Verne’s Around The World in 80 Days in 72 days, and even more amazingly, Going undercover to get herself put into a New York Mental Hospital to then publish an exposé on the unlivable conditions and mistreatment of marginalized women. Journalist, Novelist, Inventor and overall amazing Woman. So its only fitting that our Division for Investigative Journalism be named for the woman who made the genre.

We’re excited to celebrate the excellent caliber of work that we have had the honor of promoting in the CIBAs for Longform Journalism.

The Nellie Bly Awards are one of a kind. Check out the following books to find out why!

The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, And a 20 Year Fight for Justice
By Dan Slepian

In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC’s Dateline, received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving twenty-five years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit.

Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched Slepian on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying—or even acknowledging—its mistakes and their consequences.

The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice is Slepian’s account of challenging that system. The story follows Slepian on years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that led to a series of powerful Dateline episodes and eventually to freedom for four other men and to an especially deep and lasting friendship with one of them, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez. From his cell in Sing Sing, JJ aided Slepian in his investigations until his own release in 2021 after decades in prison.

Like Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, The Sing Sing Files is a deeply personal account of wrongful imprisonment and the flaws in our justice system, and a powerful argument for reckoning and accountability. Slepian’s extraordinary book, at once painful and full of hope, shines a light on an injustice whose impact the nation has only begun to confront.

Buy the book here!

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America
By Paul Kix

Paul Kix shows readers the bloody front lines of the civil rights movement in his novel You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America.

This historical nonfiction novel explores in-depth the Birmingham, Alabama campaign known as Project C. Kix dives deep into the minds of dozens of key historical figures who helped orchestrate the campaign, such as Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and Fred Shuttlesworth. Despite an overwhelming fear of failure, Project C needed to catch the attention of the nation.

When the brutal murder of George Floyd sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, Kix and his wife were faced with the difficult task of explaining racism to their children. Kix, who is white, and his wife, who is Black, chose not to shield them from news coverage of the deaths and the protests that followed.

The jarring footage of Floyd’s death paralleled another startling image: that of a 15-year-old boy being attacked by a German shepherd handled by the Birmingham police.

Read More Here

Saints and Soldiers
By Rita Katz

To many, atrocities such as mass shootings and violent counter-protests seem to appear out of thin air, undertaken by independent actors. But Rita Katz, in her groundbreaking exploration of internet-age terrorism Saints and Soldiers, reveals a sinister ecosystem of violence multiplying worldwide, visible yet largely ignored.

Katz – executive director of the counterterrorist organization SITE Intelligence Group– uses a strategic blend of primary media sources, personal narrative, and research analysis to unearth the haunting truths of internet-age terrorism. Although SITE once focused mainly on monitoring the actions of Islamist terrorist groups, Katz describes how it began applying the same tracking methods to white supremacists and neo-Nazis over a decade ago. As Katz writes, “the internet is more than just an asset for today’s new breed of terrorists. It is a necessity.”

Read More Here

America’s Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor
By Nicole Evalina

Comprehensive in its own right, America’s Forgotten Suffragists by Nicole Evelina is an essential addition to the canon of women’s suffrage and first-wave feminism.

Equal parts local history of women’s right to vote in the nineteenth century and biography of Virginia and Francis Minor, America’s Forgotten Suffragists illuminates the story of a wife-and-husband feminist duo who were the first to fight for women’s suffrage at the Supreme Court level.

We learn about the lives of Virginia and Francis Minor by way of historical records, intersecting timelines with other suffragists, and news articles and letters. Virginia Minor was raised on the new and intellectually stimulating University of Virginia campus, where her father worked. Born into a colonial settler and slave-owning family, Virginia came into her own as she grew older, forming abolitionist and feminist beliefs.

Read More Here

Prison From The Inside Out
By William “Mecca” Elmore and Susan Simone

Prison from Inside Out: One Man’s Journey from a Life Sentence to Freedom is an illuminating chronicle that tells the story of a man who not only survived the stoniest soil but used his experiences to thrive as a human being.

This arresting memoir is essentially a road trip of William ‘Mecca’ Elmore, a man with a tumultuous childhood, growing up in a neighborhood chock full of social problems. It is in this environment that Elmore is involved in a crime that consequently leads to his arrest and trial. The story builds upon his incarceration in various correctional facilities, his experiences, his release through a Mutual Agreement Parole Program, and his eventual redemption.

Read More Here

 

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Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Nellie Bly Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Be Part of the Legacy: Join the Illustrious Roster of Winners

As the deadline for the 2025 Nellie Bly Awards creeps closer, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the exceptional achievers.

Seeking avenues for your non-fiction prowess? Explore all our Non-Fiction Divisions that provide platforms for various genres and styles.

With over $30,000 in rewards and prizes given away every year, what are you waiting for? Submit today!

 

In the Tradition of Fearless Truth-Telling

The Nellie Bly Awards Honor Investigative Journalism That Changes the World

The submissions for the 2025 Awards are underway, and Nellie Bly closes on August 31, 2025!

In 1887, a young reporter named Nellie Bly feigned mental illness to expose the horrific conditions at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, forever changing how society treated the mentally ill. Her courage to go undercover, endure personal risk, and challenge powerful institutions established a tradition of investigative journalism that continues to hold the powerful accountable and give voice to the voiceless.

The Nellie Bly Awards honor this fearless tradition, celebrating the journalists, researchers, and truth-tellers who dedicate years – sometimes decades – to exposing corruption, fighting injustice, and demanding accountability from systems that would prefer to operate in shadows. These are the stories that don’t just inform readers; they change laws, free the innocent, and restore faith in the power of persistent, ethical journalism.

The Vital Role of Investigative Journalism

In an era of instant news, social media speculation, and AI hallucinations, deep investigative work has never been more crucial. The authors recognized by the Nellie Bly Awards understand that real accountability journalism requires time, resources, and extraordinary persistence. They dig deeper than daily news cycles allow, following leads that others abandon, and asking questions that make uncomfortable people uncomfortable.

The best investigative non-fiction sparks conversations, policy changes, and sometimes legal action that creates lasting positive change. These authors transform individual investigations into broader understanding of systemic issues that affect us all.

Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!

We’re deeply honored to recognize Dan Slepian, whose extraordinary work The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice claimed the 2024 Nellie Bly Grand Prize with an investigation that exemplifies the very best of accountability journalism. What began as a single tip from a Bronx homicide detective in 2002 became a twenty-year personal and professional journey that ultimately freed six innocent men from prison.

Slepian’s story demonstrates the persistence that defines great investigative journalism—years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that challenged a justice system “fiercely resistant to rectifying—or even acknowledging—its mistakes.” His work resulted not only in powerful Dateline episodes but in actual freedom for wrongfully convicted men, including his deep friendship with Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, who aided Slepian’s investigations from his Sing Sing cell until his own release in 2021.

The Sing Sing Files represents investigative journalism at its most vital, exposing systemic flaws while honoring individual human stories, requiring both professional skill and personal courage, and ultimately creating change that extends far beyond the pages of the book. In addition to ongoing promotional features, The Sing Sing Files will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Dan Slepian will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and The Sing Sing Files will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.

Categories That Cover Every Beat

The Nellie Bly Awards welcome investigative work across every section of the metaphorical newspaper, recognizing that corruption and injustice can emerge anywhere:

• Social Science – Research-driven investigations into societal patterns and behaviors
• Data Driven Reporting – Stories powered by statistical analysis and empirical evidence
• Equality and Justice – Exposés of discrimination and fights for civil rights
• Ethics – Investigations into moral failures in institutions and leadership
• Human Rights – Documentation of abuses and advocacy for fundamental freedoms
• Refugees, Immigrants, Migrants – Stories of displacement and the policies that affect vulnerable populations
• Activist Groups – Investigations into movements, both positive and problematic
• Crimes and Corruption – Classic investigative journalism exposing criminal behavior and institutional corruption
• Environmental – Reporting on ecological crimes and environmental justice
• Whistle Blowers – Stories of those brave enough to expose wrongdoing from within
• Politics Regional, National, International – Government accountability at every level
• Wartime/Military – Investigations into conflicts and military institutions
• \Health and Medicine – Medical investigations and healthcare system accountability and interest stories
• Nature and the Environment – Environmental science and conservation investigations and interest stories
• Pop Culture, Social Issues, Current Events – Contemporary cultural criticism and social analysis
• Home & Garden – Largely interest stories focused on how-to home changes and possible investigations that can result

Like the sections of a great newspaper, these categories ensure that no corner of society escapes the scrutiny that democracy requires.

Other August Non-Fiction Opportunities

The Nellie Bly Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of narrative non-fiction, all closing at the end of August:

• Journey Awards: Courageous stories of overcoming adversity and transforming trauma into purpose
• Hearten Awards: Uplifting non-fiction that inspires hope and positive transformation
• Military & Front Line Awards: Stories of military service and front-line experiences

September’s non-fiction divisions include Instruction and Insight (I&I), Harvey Chute, and Mind & Spirit Awards.

Looking at Investigative Excellence

Check out some of these powerful investigative works we’ve celebrated recently!

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live
By Paul Kix

Paul Kix shows readers the bloody front lines of the civil rights movement in his novel You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America.

This historical nonfiction novel explores in-depth the Birmingham, Alabama campaign known as Project C. Kix dives deep into the minds of dozens of key historical figures who helped orchestrate the campaign, such as Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and Fred Shuttlesworth. Despite an overwhelming fear of failure, Project C needed to catch the attention of the nation.

When the brutal murder of George Floyd sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, Kix and his wife were faced with the difficult task of explaining racism to their children. Kix, who is white, and his wife, who is Black, chose not to shield them from news coverage of the deaths and the protests that followed.

The jarring footage of Floyd’s death paralleled another startling image: that of a 15-year-old boy being attacked by a German shepherd handled by the Birmingham police.

Read More Here

Delaware from Freeways to E-Ways
By Dave Tabler

Dave Tabler’s Delaware from Freeways to E-Ways presents a nonlinear kaleidoscope view of Delaware’s twentieth-century history, braiding together snapshots of the state through a variety of lenses.

By dissecting the history of the state’s education system, economy, politics, war, technology, social dynamics, religion, agriculture, and conservation of the natural world, this book becomes a patchwork quilt of Delaware’s contributions to recent American history.

Tabler strategically places historical images throughout the first half of the book to help paint a vivid picture of what Delaware life has been like across the years. The second half of the book then expounds on every snapshot, allowing the reader to pursue the parts that most interest them. Tabler concludes each of these deeper dives by describing the impacts on present-day Delaware and America. These threads of connection to current events help the reader find meaning within the overall arc of history.

Read More Here

Italians in the Pacific Northwest
By Tessa Floreano

Tessa Floreano’sItalians in the Pacific Northwest is an inviting pictorial narrative featuring both ordinary and extraordinary individuals of Italian heritage who helped to create and develop Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Concentrating on the decades from 1880 to 1950, Floreano begins by referencing the earliest Italian explorers of the Pacific Northwest Territory, then quickly moves to the efforts of those who sought a better life through hard work and new opportunities on American shores.

Floreano’s research shows through the fascinating details of this book.

She includes stories, photographs, and memorabilia to highlight both the struggles and triumphs of these pioneering Italian Americans. From the backbreaking labor of building the road and rail infrastructure that connected this new land, to working in the coal mines, logging and milling the giant cedars, farming the soil, fishing the waters, and becoming savvy entrepreneurs, these people proved a hearty, steadfast bunch.

Read More Here

I Am a Prisoner of Hope
By Samuel Ole Lotegeluaki, Ph.D.

Author Samuel Ole Lotegeluaki, PhD, states in the very title of this book, I Am a Prisoner of Hope. He goes on to explain why this is the case and why hope is central to our beingness.

A Maasai originally from Tanzania and one of three boys in a family with eight children, Lotegeluaki has been living in the United States for many years and has seen much good and much bad, in the country and around the world. In defiance of social inequality and bigotry, Lotegelauki maintains a strong belief in human unity, “Day and night I am reminded of the fact that we as human beings, regardless of culture, language, religion, gender, skin color or social economic status, are all under God’s huge canopy, and we are convincingly related.” He reminds us, “You may not look exactly like me, but rest assured, we are not just related, but more importantly, we are siblings.”

Lotegeluaki tells the reader his experiences, the histories of places he has lived and the people he has met, and observes what each has to teach and offer humanity. He remains dedicated to the pursuit of togetherness within diversity, no matter our differences. In Chapter Four, “Grandmother’s Quilt,” he uses the metaphor of a handmade quilt with emotional overtones and ties to explain human nature and all that it entails.

Read More Here

Saints and Soldiers
By Rita Katz

To many, atrocities such as mass shootings and violent counter-protests seem to appear out of thin air, undertaken by independent actors. But Rita Katz, in her groundbreaking exploration of internet-age terrorism Saints and Soldiers, reveals a sinister ecosystem of violence multiplying worldwide, visible yet largely ignored.

Katz– executive director of the counterterrorist organization SITE Intelligence Group– uses a strategic blend of primary media sources, personal narrative, and research analysis to unearth the haunting truths of internet-age terrorism. Although SITE once focused mainly on monitoring the actions of Islamist terrorist groups, Katz describes how it began applying the same tracking methods to white supremacists and neo-Nazis over a decade ago. As Katz writes, “the internet is more than just an asset for today’s new breed of terrorists. It is a necessity.”

Throughout Saints and Soldiers, Katz uses her decades of intensive experience to describe how a new generation of internet-born white supremacist movements followed the same trajectory as ISIS. She exposes the network of threads that link white supremacist violence such as the Christchurch massacre of 2019 to their origins on messaging platforms such as 8chan, Discord, Stormfront, and Telegram. Indoctrinating vulnerable minds with extremist neo-Nazi ideology, these violent groups use a “screw your optics” mantra that celebrates gruesome violence and the “saints” and “martyrs” that drive their hateful cause.

Read More Here

These works demonstrate how great investigative journalism combines rigorous research with compelling storytelling to create accountability and change.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

The CIBAs offer multiple levels of recognition designed to augment your digital footprint and provide long-tail marketing that makes you easier for readers to find. Each reward builds on the previous and continues promotion:

• Long List: Recognition across our website, newsletter, and social media
• Short List/Semi-Finalist: Digital badges and promotional stickers
• Finalists: Conference discounts, review discounts, certificates, and genre-specific badges
• First Place Winners: Coveted Chanticleer Blue Ribbon, premium review discounts, lifetime Roost membership discount, and year-round promotion
• Grand Prize Winners: Awarded Editorial Book Review and Author Interview, featured on Awards page all year, promoted in Hall of Fame articles for five years
• Overall Grand Prize Winner: $1000 cash prize

The Nellie Bly Awards provide recognition for work that often takes years to complete and may challenge powerful interests who would prefer these stories remain untold. Whether you’re a professional journalist, academic researcher, or citizen investigator, these awards celebrate the courage and persistence required to hold the powerful accountable and give voice to those who need advocates.

Carry Forward the Legacy

In Nellie Bly’s tradition, the best investigative journalism requires both courage and compassion—the bravery to challenge systems and the empathy to understand how those systems affect real people. Your investigation, your exposé, your carefully researched account of injustice or corruption could be the story that creates change, demands accountability, or gives voice to those who have been silenced.

Honor Nellie Bly’s legacy of fearless truth-telling—the deadline is August 31, 2025!

Submit to the Nellie Bly Awards today and help us celebrate journalism that changes the world!