Elena Kostyuchenko
Elena Kostyuchenko was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with Mykolaiv.
Elena Kostyuchenko is a Russian independent journalist. For 17 years she was a special correspondent of Novaya Gazeta, till the newspaper was shut down by Russian authorities in April 2022. She reported on conflict, crime, and social issues. Kostyuchenko was among the first to write about the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. She covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the second day of the war. She is also the author of two collections, Unwanted on Probation and It’s Us Who Will Live Here. Her work was acknowledged with multiple awards including European Press Prize, the Gerd Bucerius Award-Free Press of Eastern Europe, and Paul Klebnikov Prize.
Maartje Bakker
Maartje Bakker was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with The long road to a home in Europe.
Maartje Bakker (Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 1985) studied Biology, with a minor in Journalism and in Spanish Language & Culture. In 2009, she started working as a professional journalist, mainly for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. First, she worked at the politics desk, writing about migration, justice, education and politics in general. After that, she became a correspondent in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Since 2021, she is back in The Netherlands and works at the science desk of De Volkskrant, looking at society from a scientific point of view. Her stories have been granted several awards, among which the international AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award. She likes most to work on international projects, and to tell the stories of people who are normally not getting a stage, like migrants or victims of climate change.