CWS’s Herlinger wins DeRose-Hinkhouse writing awards


April 16, 2012

CWS's Chris Herlinger with Deb Christian, president of the Religion Communicators Council. Photo: Mary Beth Coudal/GBGM

CWS’s Chris Herlinger with Deb Christian, president of the Religion Communicators Council. Photo: Mary Beth Coudal/GBGM

Philadelphia, Pa. – Church World Service writer Chris Herlinger has won two top awards from the Religion Communicators Council for his reporting from Haiti.

Herlinger won Best of Class in the categories, writing for publication and specialized writing, in this year’s De Rose-Hinkhouse Awards, announced Thursday, April 12, at the council’s April 12-14 convention, held this year in Philadelphia, Pa.

In both cases, the awards were for work based on reporting for CWS and the ACT Alliance about recovery efforts in Haiti in the year following the January 2010 earthquake.

Herlinger’s reporting for CWS expanded into longer form assignments for the March 2011 issue of the magazinePresbyterians Today and into a book, Rubble Nation: Haiti’s Pain, Haiti’s Promise, co-authored by photographer Paul Jeffrey, a United Methodist photographer. Rubble Nation was recently published by Seabury Books, a division of New York-based Church Publishing Group.

The article in Presbyterians Today, “Haiti: A Year Later,” won Best of Class in the category of writing for publication.Presbyterians Today is a publication of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a CWS-member communion. Rubble Nation won Best of Class in the category of specialized writing.

This marks the sixth successive year Herlinger has won a DeRose-Hinkhouse Award and the first time he has won two Best of Class honors. The DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards are given each year to active RCC members who demonstrate excellence in religious communications. Established in 1967, the awards are named for the late Victor DeRose and the late Paul M. Hinkhouse, leading lithographers in New York City and longtime friends of RCC.

The Religion Communicators Council is an interfaith association of religion communicators at work in print and electronic communication, marketing, and public relations. Established in 1929, it is the oldest association of religion communicators in the United States.

Read more on the awards and see a full list of winners at www.religioncommunicators.org/derose-hinkhouse-awards.