Drew Philp is the winner of the 23rd annual Michael Kelly Award, given by The Atlantic, for his investigative feature “There Will Be No Mercy,” published by The Atavist Magazine in 2025. Philp’s harrowing exposé of Ethiopia’s civil war serves as the definitive account of the two-year conflict, considered one of the deadliest of this century.
The award was announced this morning at The Atlantic Festival in New York City. Philp’s article recounted the conflict in Ethiopia through the lens of a single hospital, suddenly overwhelmed with casualties as government soldiers targeted not only combatants but civilians, including children, in the province of Tigray. Philp followed doctors such as Abraha Gebreegziabher, a pediatrician, who confronted the carnage in the hospital even as he wondered why powerful nations simply stood by.
In his acceptance speech today, Philp said: “Across the world, people are watching the West break its promises and squander nearly a century of goodwill. Many, like Dr. Abraha, are beginning to look elsewhere for hope and the rule of law. This is a failure that threatens to topple all of our successes. When we in the West abandon the law and commitment to dignity, when we allow international institutions to be corrupted, when we stand idle as our allies commit atrocities—even genocide—and yes, when we commit atrocities ourselves, we corrupt our own democracy and bomb our own credibility abroad and at home.”
The Michael Kelly Award judges praised the clarity and poignancy of Philp’s writing and the depth of his reporting on the suffering of the Tigrayan people at the hands of the Ethiopian government. “There Will Be No Mercy” won a National Magazine Award for reporting and a citation for excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America’s Madeline Dane Ross Award. Philp is an independent journalist. He will be awarded a prize of $25,000.
Presented annually by The Atlantic, the Michael Kelly Award honors journalists whose work exemplifies “the fearless pursuit and expression of truth,” which defined Michael Kelly’s own life and career. Kelly was the first journalist killed in the course of the Iraq War, in 2003. He served as editor of The Atlantic and National Journal when both magazines were publications of Atlantic Media, chaired by David G. Bradley. Bradley created the award in Kelly’s honor.
Journalists from three other news organizations were recognized as finalists: Elliott Woods, at Texas Monthly, for his two-part account of the worst immigration disaster in American history; Emily Baumgaertner Nunn of The New York Times Magazine, for her feature on sex trafficking in Los Angeles; and Elizabeth Weil, at New York magazine’s The Cut, for her moving stories on sibling sexual abuse and nonverbal autistic children.
Five judges selected the winner and the finalists: Ena Alvarado, a writer and former assistant editor at The Atlantic; Charles Green, a former editor of National Journal; Adam Harris, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Cullen Murphy, an editor at large of The Atlantic; and Sarah Topol, now a staff writer at The Atlantic and a past winner of the Michael Kelly Award.
More information about Michael Kelly and the award in his honor can be found at theatlantic.com/michael-kelly-award.
Press Contacts: Anna Bross and Sammi Sontag | The Atlantic [email protected]
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