Three Cheers

We’re proud to recognize three contributors to Harvard Magazine for outstanding work on readers’ behalf during 2022, and to confer a $1,000 honorarium on each.


Lincoln Caplan
Photograph by Susan L. Carney

The McCord Writing Prize (honoring David T.W. McCord ’21, A.M. ’22, L.H.D. ’56, and his prose and verse composed for the magazine and the Harvard College Fund) goes to contributing editor and journalist Lincoln Caplan ’72, J.D. ’76, a visiting lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale Law School. He profiled Radcliffe Institute dean and civil rights historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin (January-February) and Elena Kagan, associate justice of the Supreme Court (November-December; see reader reactions, beginning on page 2); reviewed important books on the Constitution (January-February) and Justice Felix Frankfurter (September-October); and provided same-day analysis of the oral argument in the affirmative action admissions case now being decided by the Court (see harvardmag.com/admissions-arguments-22)—an astonishingly productive year in these pages.


Matthew G. Wood
Photograph courtesy of Matthew G. Wood

Nancy Walecki’s reporting on economic mobility (“The Upward Mobility Problem,” May-June) led to East Mississippi Community College and the Golden Triangle Development nonprofit in that state. University of Alabama photographer Matthew G. Wood captured riveting portraits of Gary Jones and Fabian Ryan, whose studies are equipping them for in-demand careers. These powerful images underlined the connection between Harvard scholars’ research on community colleges and the very real-world implications, from Mississippi to Boston’s Bunker Hill. We salute Wood for his work behind the lens.


Dan Page
Photograph courtesy of Dan Page

Illustrator Dan Page, based near Toronto, is unusually adept at bringing abstract ideas to visual life. We have featured his work numerous times, including past cover assignments, and are pleased to honor him, again, for his creative, clear depiction of long COVID as an enveloping labyrinth in the instantly recognizable shape of a coronavirus—the September-October cover art accompanying Jonathan Shaw’s feature.

It was a pleasure to publish their distinguished work, and we are delighted to thank these superb professionals.

—The Editors

Sub topics

You might also like

Harvard Professor James Hanken on the Amphibian Extinction Crisis

Curator of Herpetology on where all the frogs are going

Proactive AI Policy

Businesses should start self-regulating before government intervention, argue Harvard professors.

Harvard’s Year That Was

Amid academic honors, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences focuses on the campus protest and task forces on antisemitism, anti-Muslim bias, civil discourse, and institutional voice.

Most popular

Michelle Yeoh’s Three Tips for Success

Oscar-winning actress offers advice in Harvard Law School Class Day address.

Poise, in Spite of Everything

Nina Skov Jensen ’25, portraitist for collectors and the princess of Denmark. 

Harvard Professor James Hanken on the Amphibian Extinction Crisis

Curator of Herpetology on where all the frogs are going

More to explore

Harvard Cardinal Robert W. McElroy on the Changing Catholic Church

Cardinal Robert W. McElroy on how the Catholic Church has moved towards inclusivity.

AI as Cancer Oracle?

How is artificial intelligence (AI) being used for cancer detection and prevention?

The Harvard Graduate and Early Vegetarian Benjamin Smith Lyman

Brief life of the vegetarian trailblazer, 1835-1920