The 2023 Writer's Symposium by the Sea interview "A Conversation with N. Scott Momaday" has won a bronze Telly Award for the category of Television Biography.
According to the Telly Awards website, "The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created within television and across video for all screens. Receiving over 12,000 entries globally from 6 continents and all 50 states, Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world."
The interview with Pulitzer Prize winning Native American author N. Scott Momaday (House Made of Dawn, 1969) was filmed in February 2023 as part of the 28th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea: Writing That Celebrates. Momaday died less than a year later on January 24, 2024.
Dr. Dean Nelson, director of the Writer's Symposium and the PLNU journalism program, shared the following in an email to PLNU staff and faculty:
"You might remember that Momaday was scheduled to come to our campus for the Symposium interview in 2023, but his health was declining, and he couldn't travel. So the UCSD-TV crew and I went to his house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and did the interview in his home."
Nelson also shared that the UCSD-TV producer, Natalie Walsh, wove in one of Momaday's readings from 30 years prior into the final moments of the interview. According to Nelson, the final minutes are "really skillfully done."
Visit the Telly Awards page here for more information and access to the winning interview.
The 30th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea: Writing That Redeems will be held on February 24-28, 2025. Visit the Writer's Symposium website for updates.