Brooklyn, N.Y. - Long Island University has announced the entry deadline for the upcoming George Polk Awards for the annual recognition of excellence in nearly two-dozen categories of journalistic work. Submissions must be sent to the Awards committee by Friday, January 9, 2009.

The George Polk Awards, administered by Long Island University since they were founded at the Brooklyn Campus in 1949, memorialize the CBS investigative reporter slain while covering the Greek civil war. Past winners have included Christiane Amanpour, Walter Cronkite, Seymour M. Hersh, Chet Huntley, Peter Jennings, Edward R. Murrow, Diane Sawyer, Susan Sontag, Sidney Schanberg and Studs Turkel.

The George Polk Awards luncheon and awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, April 16, 2009, starting at 11 a.m., at the Roosevelt Hotel, located at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan. On the preceding evening, Wednesday, April 15, the annual George Polk Seminar with a panel of Award winners will be held at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, located near the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues in Downtown Brooklyn. The seminar is sponsored by the Brooklyn Campus Journalism Department.

Winners of the George Polk Award are proposed and selected by a national panel of advisers that also considers entries that originate from publication offices, newsrooms or individuals. Categories vary somewhat from year to year, but it has been customary to give awards in foreign, national and local reporting, radio, television and criticism. Documentary films and books based on investigative reporting or dealing specifically with the field of journalism also may be considered for awards. From time to time, awards are made for a body of work.

For more details about submission guidelines and examples of work by past winners, see the George Polk Awards Web site at www.liu.edu/polk.

Entries must be postmarked no later than January 9, 2009. Winners will be notified some time in February. There are no entry fees or application forms. (Entries will not be acknowledged or returned.)

Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus is located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, and is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.

Posted: October 9, 2008

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