Today, the Knight-funded Livingston Awards presented its annual honors to journalists under 35. Below, Tampa Bay Times reporter Alexandra Zayas, 29, who received a 2012 Livingston Award for a yearlong investigative report that uncovered abuse of children in unlicensed religious group homes, talks about the experience. Documentary photos by Kathleen Flynn. Portrait by Tampa Bay Times. I was sitting at my desk, in a bureau of the Tampa Bay Times, when I got the call. I couldn’t wait until it was over to tell my editor. As the director of the awards told me about the upcoming luncheon in New York City, I flailed my arms, pointed at the phone, and mouthed Livingston. “You won?” my editor shouted. I pumped my fist. Before the call was over, my editor had produced bottles of champagne and announced the win to the entire newsroom. The plastic flutes were making the rounds when the awards director left me with some parting words: Don’t tell anyone yet. Oops. I couldn’t help myself. For years, I had watched the list of finalists, and for years, I had dreamed of being among them. That would mean my local stories had been noticed on a national level. I never imagined I’d win, that I’d find myself, a few weeks later, sitting at a table with the publisher of my newspaper and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page and 60 Minutes’ Morley Safer. I remember taking the stage to tell the crowd about the story I’d spent the past year reporting.
