Magazine Feature Writing: Sun Valley Magazine – “Memories of Minidoka”

pilgrimage1st Place Winner, 2009 Idaho Press Club Award of Excellence in the category Magazine Writing – Serious Feature

Winner, Excellence Award, Capital City Communicators 2009 IMPACT Awards in the category Feature Writing

Winner, Top 50 Magazine Feature Articles, 79th Annual Writer’s Digest International Writing Competition.

“Memories Of Minidoka” is the story about Minidoka, Idaho’s WWII Japanese internment camp, and the people who were forced to live there more than six decades ago.

Agency News: Patti Murphy wins IMPACT Excellence Award for feature writing

IMG_1995My feature article, “Memories of Minidoka,” which I wrote for Sun Valley Magazine (www.sunvalleymag.com/Sun-Valley-Magazine/Winter-2010/Memories-of-Minidoka/), received the Excellence Award from Capital City Communicators in the 2010 IMPACT competition. The article chronicled the weekend that several Japanese Americans returned to the Minidoka  Internment Camp, where they had been imprisoned during World War II. It told the story of their feelings and memories at returning to the camp and how old and new friendships were kindled.

The IMPACT (Idaho Marketing, PR and Communications Talent) Awards recognize the top work of Idaho’s communicators in a variety of categories, ranging from public relations and marketing, to websites and video scripts.  “Minidoka” received the highest award in the Feature Writing category.

Agency News: Patti Murphy’s writing wins first place award from Idaho Press Club

IMG_1996-2It was an honor to hear my name called out as first place winner in magazine writing, serious feature category at the 2009 Idaho Press Club Awards. One reason I was so pleased was because I received the award for my story, “Memories of Minidoka – Revisiting Idaho’s Japanese Interment Camp,” which I had written for Sun Valley Magazine (you can read it online at www.sunvalleymag.com/Sun-Valley-Magazine/Winter-2010/Memories-of-Minidoka/). For me, writing that story was an amazing experience. I spent a whole weekend with many of the Japanese-Americans who had been interned at the Minidoka Camp during WWI. Many of them were in their 70s and 80s. Together we went on a pilgrimage back to the historical site of the former camp, where they recalled memories of living behind barbed wire and guards with machine guns, how they were forced to live in near squalor, how their families lost everything they owned, and how they had long ago forgiven those who had wrongly imprisoned them. The pilgrimage is organized every summer by the Friends of Minidoka (www.minidoka.org). It was a moving, emotional and important experience and for anyone interested in this part of history, I would encourage you to be a part of this summer’s pilgrimage, June  25-27.

This was the seventh Idaho Press Club Award I have won over the past few years. All of them mean a lot, as they acknowledge the quality of my work. But for me, seeing the story of Minidoka recognized was very special.

 
 

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