The Michael Kelly Award from The Atlantic is Awarded to Drew Philp for “There Will Be No Mercy” published in The Atavist Magazine

Finalists are from Texas Monthly , The New York Times Magazine , and New York magazine’s The Cut

From L to R: Jeffrey Goldberg, Cullen Murphy, Drew Philp. ( Photo credit to BFA for The Atlantic: Marc Patrick/BFA ) September 18, 2026, 4:02 PM ET Share Save 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.