Here at TIME we take appropriate pride in our work, but it is always gratifying to get a pat on the back from someone else. In the past two weeks TIME's writers and editors were given four prestigious "pats," bringing to 28 the number of awards the magazine has received this year. TIME is especially pleased to be honored with a National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism for three pieces written by Senior Writer Lance Morrow. The judges cited "Rediscovering America" (July 7, 1980), "The Return of Patriotism" (March 10, 1980) and "Back to Reticence!" (Feb. 4, 1980) as "sharply observed, deeply felt and very well written Lance Morrow examinations of contemporary American society." Says Morrow, who has been doing Essays for TIME since 1977: "The U.S. is full of possibilities and strange, vivid trajectories. That is why it is so interesting to write about. Americans have a vast moral self-consciousness: they need to know what they think of themselves."

For its special issue on the Soviet Union (June 23, 1980), TIME won the Overseas Press Club Award for the best magazine interpretation of foreign affairs. Says National Editor John Elson, who was in charge of the project: "The object was to devote an entire issue to one subject that people actually knew very little about and at the same time to retain the newsmagazine approach." Before writing the main story, Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott made his sixth visit to the U.S.S.R., becoming the first Western journalist to tour the Central Asian republics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The bulk of

the reporting was done by Moscow Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan and Reporter-Researcher John Kohan, who spent months gathering detailed impressions of life in the U.S.S.R. In addition, the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal went last week to Photographer Steve McCurry for his dramatic series of TIME photographs of the war in Afghanistan.

Last week too came the announcement that TIME Washington Correspondent Neil MacNeil will receive the first Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress. MacNeil has covered the Capitol for TIME since 1958. Says he: "The job is a reward itself. Which, of course, makes being honored for doing it doubly pleasant."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.