Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer Program

The Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer Program was established in 2001 to inspire new generations of writers in honor of Nevada writer Robert Laxalt, who developed from news reporter to fiction and nonfiction author during his prolific career. Considered by many to be Nevada’s finest writer, Laxalt founded the University of Nevada Press and wrote 17 books, four of which were entered for the Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote for National Geographic and served as a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism for 18 years, teaching magazine writing and literary journalism. Since 2010, Nevada Humanities has joined the Reynolds School of Journalism as a partner in producing this program, which takes place in Reno each fall.

2024 Awardee Linda Villarosa

The University of Nevada, Reno Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, in partnership with Nevada Humanities, presents the 2024 Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer Linda Villarosa. Villarosa is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where she covers race, inequality and public health. Her award-winning work has examined HIV/AIDS, maternal health and infant mortality, environmental justice, COVID-19 racial health disparities and life expectancy. A former executive editor of Essence Magazine, she is the author of the book Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. It was honored as one of the top 10 books of 2022 by The New York Times Book Review and was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize.

Linda’s contribution to The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project highlights race-based physiological myths that have endured in medical practice since slavery, and an expanded version of her essay was included in the book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. A graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she is now a professor, Linda also teaches journalism, English and Black Studies at the City College of New York.