L. LAMAR WILSON
JOURNALISM/ESSAYS
L. Lamar Wilson has edited and written for the McClatchy Co., The New York Times, The Washington Post/The Root, Oxford American, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and his columns were published widely through those publications' syndicates. He was awarded the 2012 North Carolina Press Association Headline Writing Award and the 2007 and 2010 National Association of Black Journalist Salute to Excellence Award for copy-editing in The Post and the AJC. His essays earned him a 2000 commendation from the Hearst Foundation and 2002 fellowship from the National Conference of Editorial Writers (now the Association of Opinion Journalists).
Essays on Music, Visual Art, Culture, and Literature
On A. Van Jordan's When I Waked, I Cried to Dream Again, for Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 2024)
On the photography of D'Angelo Lovell Williams in The Bitter Southerner, curated by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis and Georgia Hall of Famer Valerie Boyd (Summer 2021)
On 2 Live Crew, Goodie M.O.B., Outkast, Unk, & Rapsody at NPR (Summer 2020)
On Rapsody, "Queen of Snow Hill" in Oxford American (Winter 2018-Summer 2019, including a conversation that she cites on The Breakfast Club and NPR as the impetus for her critically acclaimed Eve)
On Eddie Long @ The Root, Oct. 26, 2011
On The Help @ The Root, Aug. 13, 2011
Tribute to E. Lynn Harris, Washington Post, July 24, 2009
"Singing with dignity and defiance: Simone's songs, style demanded attention,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 22, 2003
"Morrison brings us face to face with the blood, pain of slavery,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 24, 2003
“Taking a personal lesson from Cornel West,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 26, 2002
Feature Reporting
“Seeing ‘Souls of Black Folk’ through prism of a century,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 4, 2003
Awards
2015 N.C. Press Association's Headline Writing Award, Third Place
2012 N.C. Press Association's Headline Writing Award, First Place
2010 NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards, Headline Writing (The Washington Post)
2007 NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards, Headline Writing (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Work Edited/Headlines Crafted
New York Times's Obituary of Osama bin Laden (May 2011)
Washington Post's coverage of Barack Obama inauguration
(Award-winning headline in print, January 2009:
"Where is the love? / Everywhere")
Washington Post's obituary for Flip Schulke
(Award-winning headline in print, May 2008:
"His eyes saw / the prize early")