The Inquirer's Matt Katz wins the Livingston Award for international reporting

Inquirer reporter Matt Katz has won the Livingston Award for international reporting for his series "Mired in Afghanistan," published in The Inquirer last October. (Click here to read the series.)

The Livingston prize honors journalists under 35. Print, broadcast, and online entries compete in local, national, and international categories.

Katz, 32, who covers Gov. Christie out of The Inquirer's Trenton bureau, received the $10,000 award Tuesday at a ceremony in New York City.

"Matt has had a tremendous impact here since arriving a few years ago from the [Camden] Courier-Post," said Inquirer editor Stan Wischnowski. "He has written extensively about municipal government, education, and crime in South Jersey.

"Before his current assignment covering Gov. Christie, he had an incredibly successful stint as our beat reporter for Camden, and authored a four-part series about the failure of New Jersey's extraordinary seven-year takeover of the city. "

The Livingston judging panel included Ken Auletta of the New Yorker; Christiane Amanpour, host of This Week; Charles Gibson, a former anchor for ABC News; Ellen Goodman, a columnist and author; Dean Baquet, the New York Times managing editor; Anna Quindlen, an author and Newsweek contributing editor; John Harris, editor-in-chief of Politico; and Clarence Page, a commentator and columnist.