ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 25, 2009) – Student photojournalist Carl Kiilsgaard of Western Kentucky University has won Cliff Edom’s “New America Award” in the National Press Photographers Association’s Best Of Photojournalism competition today during judging at the contest’s host site, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

“Wow,” Kiilsgaard said when he was called with the news. “I was just walking out of class! That’s great!”

Kiilsgaard won the Edom Award for his long-term documentary essay on some families living in Whitesburg, KY. They are the sons and daughters of coal miners and have grown up dealing with the problems of living in impoverished eastern Kentucky, where it is growing more difficult these days to find steady work and to raise their children. Read more ….

Photo by Carl Kiilsgaard, Story by Donald Winslow