The Chroniclers

These thinkers’ narratives gripped emotions and moved ideological mountains, documenting the daily tribulations of immigrants in the United Kingdom, the queer subcultures of the Arab world, and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta. While one deployed outlandish verse to challenge an unjust German statute, others unsettled audiences with chilling nuclear-age films. Whether with an Orwellian take on authoritarianism in Egypt or poetic reinventions of the English language through the lens of alienation, they all broke conventions. Yet they produced work that felt relevant, accessible, and urgent.

• Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser; Lynette Wallworth

  Filmmakers/New York City and Monterey, California; Australia

  For immersing audiences in the destructive power of the nuke.

  Profession

  

• Mohamed Ben Attia

  Filmmaker/Tunisia

  For whispering a story of liberation.

  Profession

  

• Jan Böhmermann

  Comedian/Germany

  For stretching the limits of free speech.

  Profession

  

• Ganzeer

  Artist/Los Angeles

  For sketching a dire environmental warning.

  Profession

  

• Nikesh Shukla

  Novelist/United Kingdom

  For tackling the unbearable whiteness of publishing.

  Profession

  

• Saleem Haddad

  Novelist/United Kingdom

  For reclaiming queer Arab identity.

  Profession

  

• Sonia Kennebeck

  Documentarian/Washington, D.C.

  For dropping truth by drone.

  Profession

  

• The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration

  Scientists/Worldwide

  For opening a window to the dark side.

  Profession

  

• Ocean Vuong

  Poet/New York City

  For rewriting the lines of nationalism.

  Profession

  

• Basma Abdel Aziz

  Novelist/Egypt

  For telling an Orwellian tale.

  Profession

  

• Zina Saro-Wiwa

  Artist/New York City

  For shouldering a cultural legacy.

  Profession