2025 Excellence in Journalism Award Recipient and Special Recognition Honoree
New York, NY — January 31, 2026 — The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) is pleased to announce Anna Parker, PhD, as the recipient of the 2025 APsA Excellence in Journalism Award for her essay The Art in the Analyst’s Room. APsA also awards Special Recognition to After the Darién: Venezuelan migrant children and the mental health journey they face, a two-part investigative piece by Clavel Rangel and Katie Scarlett Brandt, in acknowledgment of its extraordinary journalistic and humanitarian contribution.
In selecting The Art in the Analyst’s Room, the adjudication panel praised Anna Parker’s essay for its illuminating and astute attention to the analytic space and the meanings carried by objects within it. The panel noted that Parker’s personal presence is felt without dominating the piece, allowing the reporting to remain clear-eyed and accessible to a general readership. By positioning herself as a proxy for the patient, Parker raises thoughtful questions about the person of the analyst, questions that are often unasked, and gives voice to common curiosities about what the consulting room may signal, or obscure, within the analytic encounter. The result, the panel observed, is a balanced and engaging presentation of a subtle but important feature of psychoanalytic work.
“This year, we received a robust and diverse group of submissions engaging a wide range of timely and meaningful topics. We hope the increased visibility of the award will continue to draw psychoanalytic thinkers from both academic and clinical communities, as well as those working beyond traditional settings.” says Aimee Martinez, PsyD, Co-Chair, Committee on Public Information.
While the Excellence in Journalism Award specifically recognizes work that foregrounds psychoanalytic principles as distinct from general mental health reporting, the panel emphasized that After the Darién: Venezuelan migrant children and the mental health journey they face, is tremendously important journalism. The Special Recognition is intended to elevate attention to the urgent issues it documents and to the lives of the children and families whose stories it brings to light. The adjudication panel celebrated After the Darién as a deeply moving and rigorously researched exposé on one of the most disturbing and destructive humanitarian crises of our time. Told through the stories of families directly affected, the work powerfully examines the psychological toll of forced migration, trauma, and displacement. The piece was further recognized for its innovative use of the digital format, blending scrolling text with striking images and graphics to create an immersive, documentary-style reading experience.
Anna Parker is Past & Present Fellow at the Institute for Historical Research, University of London. She has a PhD in History from Cambridge and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Society for Renaissance Studies. Her writing is in the Times Literary Supplement, Guardian and Granta, among others, and she was a London Library Emerging Writer in 2020.
Award Presentation
Both honors were acknowledged during APsA’s 2026 National Meeting in San Francisco. The Excellence in Journalism Award was presented prior to the Plenary Session on Saturday, January 31, 2026, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the Palace Hotel.
About the Award
Formally established in 1999, the Excellence in Journalism Award honors professional reporting or short-form writing of exceptional quality that brings psychoanalytic principles and perspectives to a general audience and advances public understanding of the human condition. The award includes a $1,000 prize and recognition at APsA’s National Meeting. For the next award cycle, eligible submissions must be written in English, intended for a general audience, and first published between September 1, 2025, and August 30, 2026. Submissions must employ psychoanalytic thinking to illuminate human behavior, relationships, mental health, or psychologically complex social issues. The award is juried by a panel of professional journalists and psychoanalysts experienced in communicating with the public.
