Every year, The New York Public Library gives the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism to a journalist whose work brings clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies. This series focuses on each of the five 2019 finalists, announced on March 5. The winner will be announced on April 16.

As a member of the Library Review Committee for this award, I'm proud to introduce one of the five finalists, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold.

On the surface, Griswold's book is about hydraulic fracturing—using blasts of high-pressure liquids to break up rock deposits deep in the earth and extract natural gas—and what happened when the fracking industry came to one town in southwestern Pennsylvania. Even at its most basic level, the book is a fascinating story about the energy boom's relationship to the natural land.

But there are so many more layers to Amity and Prosperity.

It's also a moving portrait of a family—a resolute mother trying to care for her two children, sickened by the fracking fallout. That portrait widens to encompass a snapshot of a whole community: impossibly dedicated attorneys, unexpected environmental activists, taciturn neighbors thrust into the spotlight, and even a handful of unforgettable farm animals who grow ill before their humans puzzle out what's going on.

The people of Amity defy stereotypes and challenge oversimplification. Griswold addresses their relationships to each other, to outsiders, and to the land. The book speaks to their decades of experience with extraction industries; it's in step with many recent works of nonfiction that try to explain the fundamental divides between rural and urban Americans.

It's also a cautionary tale about environmental disasters of our own making, corporate greed, and the dissolution of the regulating bodies that are supposed to keep it in check.

Finally, Amity and Prosperity is a shining example of ethical, responble journalism. Griswold shows how immersive journalism can result in a more compassionate and complete story, and how it can offer lessons that journalists and environmentalists would be well served to heed.

This is a story that would not—perhaps could not—have been told without Griswold's keen, clear-eyed, compassionate method of storytelling and her unique background as a veteran correspondent reporting on conflicts in Syria, Pakistan, Nigeria, the Philippines, and other areas around the globe. Now, Griswold is also working with students at New York University, teaching a new generation of journalists to think deeply about the ethics of reporting, and meaning of objectivity, in today’s era of upheaval and uncertainty surrounding how we report and receive news. 

More about the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism

The Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism was established by The New York Public Library in 1987 in honor of journalist Helen Bernstein Fealy. Each year, finalists are selected by a nine-member Library Review Committee. Winners are then chosen by a separate Bernstein Selection Committee. Eligible books are published in calendar year 2018 and the author must be currently working as a journalist, or someone who has worked in journalism for a significant portion of his or her career, whether as a reporter or commentator in newspapers, magazines, or broadcasting, i.e. print, broadcast, or online journalism. The book's subject matter must be journalistic in nature, with potential for influencing public opinion or policy, and draws public attention to important current issues or events of global/national significance.