KU News Release

KU graduate takes top honors in national college journalism competition

LAWRENCE — Thor Nystrom, a 2008 graduate of the University of Kansas, won first place in the feature-writing category of Rolling Stone magazine’s 33rd annual College Journalism Competition.

Nystrom won for “To Hell and Back,” his harrowing narrative about overcoming mental illness, which was published in the May 5 issue of the University Daily Kansan. He collected a $2,500 cash prize for the first-place award. The announcement appears in the current issue of Rolling Stone.

Ted Frederickson, professor of journalism, who taught the Depth Reporting class in which Nystrom’s story was his final project, called it “the most powerful narrative to appear in the the Kansan in my 28 years here. The purpose of journalism is to seek and share important truths, and Thor’s journey into his own painful past made readers feel as if they were watching it happen.”

The College Journalism Competition consists of three categories: entertainment reporting, feature writing and essays and criticisms. The editors of Rolling Stone judged the entries, which must have been published in a college-student newspaper or magazine between June 1, 2007, and May 30, 2008, by full- or part-time students.

“The piece pulled off one of the most difficult feats in feature writing — telling a compelling and heartrending story in the first person, one with broader relevance to all readers, without succumbing to pathos or sensationalism,” said Rolling Stone Executive Editor Eric Bates, who also directs the College Journalism Competition.

Nystrom’s story beat out more than 150 entries from other students nationwide.

To write his story, Nystrom drew upon his memories and diary entries, police and medical records and conversations with family and friends. He details the events that led up to his ordeal with mental illness, his journey through the mental health system and ultimately, his recovery.

“I had to write the story for myself, as a sort of catharsis,” said Nystrom, who covered the Minnesota Twins this season for MLB.com.

To read his story online, see www.kansan.com/stories/2008/may/05/hell_and_back.

Nystrom earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in English from KU in spring 2008. He is the son of Bob and Rachel Nystrom of Baxter, Minn., and a graduate of Brainerd Senior High School in Brainerd, Minn.

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