{{Short description|Canadian journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Matthieu Aikins | image = Counternarcotics Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan (42876517882).jpg | caption = Aikins in 2018 | birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people who have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. --> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (enter DEATH date then BIRTH date (e.g., ...|1967|8|31|1908|2|28}} use both this parameter and |birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> | nationality = | citizenship = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT --> | education = Queen's University at Kingston<br/>New York University (2012) | occupation = Journalist | employer = | organization = | known_for = | notable_works = | awards = Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (2022), National Magazine Award for Reporting (2022), George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting (2014), Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting (2025) | website = {{URL|maikins.com}} }} '''Matthieu Aikins''' is a Canadian-American journalist and author best known for his reporting on the war in Afghanistan. He is a contributing writer for ''The New York Times Magazine'', as well as a Puffin Foundation Fellow at the Type Media Center. He has also been a fellow at New America,<ref name="newamerica">{{cite web |title=Matthieu Aikins: Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, 2017 & SNHU Fellow, 2018 |url=https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/matthieu-aikins/ |website=New America |access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref> the Council on Foreign Relations,<ref name="cfr">{{cite news |title=CFR Welcomes Visiting Fellows |url=https://www.cfr.org/news-releases/cfr-welcomes-visiting-fellows-0 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Council on Foreign Relations |date=30 September 2019}}</ref> and the American Academy in Berlin.<ref name="about">{{cite web |title=About |url=https://maikins.com/about |website=Matthieu Aikins |access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref>
He is a recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes,<ref name="pulitzer2022">{{cite news |title=The 2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner in International Reporting |url= https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/staff-new-york-times-notably-azmat-khan-contributing-writer |access-date= 2 June 2022 |work=2022 Pulitzer Prizes |publisher = Pulitzer Prizes |date=9 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="pulitzer2025">{{cite news |title=The 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Explanatory Reporting |url= https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/22663 |access-date= 6 May 2025 |work=2025 Pulitzer Prizes |publisher = Pulitzer Prizes |date=5 May 2025}}</ref> the George Polk Award,<ref name="wendy">{{cite news |last1=Leopold |first1=Wendy |title=Matthieu Aikins is 2014 Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism Winner |url= https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2014/06/matthieu-aikins-is-2014-medill-medal-for-courage-in-journalism-winner-/ |access-date= 12 December 2021 |work=Northwestern Now |publisher = Northwestern University |date=5 June 2014}}</ref> and the National Magazine Award,<ref name="NMA">{{cite news |title= National Magazine Award Reporting 2022 |url= https://asme.memberclicks.net/reporting-2022 | access-date = 2 June 2022 |work=National Magazine Awards 2022 |date=5 April 2022}}</ref> and his writing has appeared in the anthology ''The Best American Magazine Writing 2012''.<ref name="martin">{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Adam |title= National Magazine Award Nominees Include 'New York,' 'The New Yorker,' 'Vice' |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/national-magazine-award-nominees-include-new-york-new-yorker-vice/329783/ | access-date = 12 December 2021 |work=The Atlantic |date=3 April 2012}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Aikins grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada, and graduated from Queen's University at Kingston in 2006. Afterwards, he spent several years traveling North America and Eastern Europe.<ref name="Longform Podcast">{{cite news |title=Longform Podcast #1: Matthieu Aikins |url=https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-1-matthieu-aikins |access-date=12 December 2021 |work= Longform |date=8 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="Longforum Interview">{{cite web |publisher = LongForum |url= http://longforum.dreamhosters.com/?p=131 |title=On Becoming Harper's Man in Afghanistan, Matthieu Aikins: 'I was just living the lifestyle of a vagabond' |access-date=2013-07-18 |url-status =dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131021073601/http://longforum.dreamhosters.com/?p=131 |archive-date=2013-10-21 }}</ref> During that period, he contributed to Canadian newspapers and alt-weeklies. One of his articles, "Adam's Fall", about suicides from the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, won two major prizes;<ref name="shaw">{{cite news |last1=Shaw |first1=Kyle |title= Matthieu Aikins wins Canadian Association of Journalists prize |url= https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/matthieu-aikins-wins-canadian-association-of-journalists-prize/Content?oid=1672677 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Coast |date=2 June 2019}}</ref><ref name="AJA Award">[http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/430363/winners-2008-atlantic-journalism-awards "Winners, 2008 Atlantic Journalism Awards"], Newswire. May 2, 2009.</ref> in 2009, the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission decided to build suicide-prevention barriers.<ref name="bousquet">{{cite news |last1 =Bousquet |first1=Tim |title=Macdonald Bridge to get suicide barriers |url=https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/macdonald-bridge-to-get-suicide-barriers/Content?oid=1119971 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Coast |date=13 May 2009}}</ref>
== Journalism career == In 2022, Aikins was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting, as part of a New York Times team that investigated civilian casualties from US airstrikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.<ref name="NYT announcement">{{cite news |title=2022 Pulitzer Prize Introductory Remarks |url= https://www.nytco.com/press/2022-pulitzer-prize-introductory-remarks/ |access-date= 2 June 2022 |work=2022 Pulitzer Prizes |publisher = NYTCO |date=10 May 2022}}</ref> Aikins was also a finalist for the Pulitzer in the same category that year for his contribution to the New York Times's reporting on the collapse of the Afghan government. His cover story for the New York Times Magazine on the fall of Kabul to the Taliban won the 2022 National Magazine Award for Reporting, and the Asia Society's Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia.<ref name="Elliot Prize ">{{cite news |title=Matthieu Aikins and Jim Huylebroek Win Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia |url= https://asiasociety.org/matthieu-aikins-and-jim-huylebroek-win-osborn-elliott-prize-excellence-journalism-asia |access-date= 2 June 2022 |work=2022 Pulitzer Prizes |publisher = Asia Society |date=10 May 2022}}</ref>
In 2016, he joined a friend and former translator for the United States on the "smuggler's road" to Europe, which is also a testament to the European migrant crisis. The book based on that experience, ''The Naked Don't Fear the Water'', was published in February 2022.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-305858-3 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref> In 2019, he was announced as the Edward R. Murrow press fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref name="cfr"/>
In 2008, Aikins traveled overland from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, where he began his career reporting from the region.<ref name="Longforum Interview"/> His half-Asian features and command of Persian allowed him to blend in as an Afghan, and Aikins began filing stories while traveling in local transportation and sleeping in roadside tea houses.<ref name="Longform Podcast"/>
He wrote several breakthrough articles in 2009, including [https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/unembedded-in-afghanistan/Content?oid=1306294 "Unembedded in Afghanistan"] for ''The Coast'', which led to his second Canadian Association of Journalists prize in two years, after his first for "Adam's Fall".<ref name="shaw"/> He also wrote a story for ''Harper's Magazine'', [https://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/the-master-of-spin-boldak/ "The Master of Spin Boldak"], about the Afghan Border Police in the town of Spin Boldak in Kandahar, Afghanistan.<ref name="Longform Podcast"/><ref name="Longforum Interview"/> The article was later used to train U.S. military intelligence analysts on the region's history.<ref name="wapo">{{cite news | last1 = Partlow |first1=Joshua |title=Military launches Afghanistan intelligence-gathering mission |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021904918.html |access-date = 12 December 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=20 February 2010}}</ref>
In 2010, he won a Canadian National Magazine Award for his story [https://thewalrus.ca/last-stand-in-kandahar/ "Last Stand in Kandahar"], published in ''The Walrus'', which led to a National Magazine Award in Canada for "Best New Creative Talent". His 2011 article "Our Man in Kandahar", about the Afghan Border Force commander, Brigadier General Abdul Raziq, was a finalist in the reporting category for the National Magazine Awards. In 2012, he received a master's degree from New York University in Near East Studies.<ref>{{cite web |title=News, Awards, Honors, Internships, and Jobs |url= https://journalism.nyu.edu/graduate/programs/global-and-joint-program-studies/internships-and-jobs/ |website =NYU Journalism |publisher =New York University |access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref>
In 2013, he published an article called [https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/feature-a-team-killings-afghanistan-special-forces/ "The A-Team Killings"] in ''Rolling Stone'', which investigated allegations against a U.S. Army Special Forces unit in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, received the 2013 George Polk Award for magazine reporting, and the 2014 Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism.<ref name="Polk">{{cite news |last1=Goodman |first1=Amy |title=Polk Winner on Afghanistan: Slain Journalists, Ghost Polls & Unresolved U.S. Ties to Deaths, Torture |url= https://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/14/polk_winner_on_afghanistan_slain_journalists |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Democracy Now! |date=14 April 2014}}</ref> His 2014 article "Whoever Saves a Life" in ''Matter'' about first responders in Syria won him a slew of awards, including the Livingston Award and the Overseas Press Club.<ref>{{cite news |title =The Ed Cunningham Award 2014 |url= https://opcofamerica.org/Awardarchive/10-ed-cunningham-award-1/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Overseas Press Club of America |date= 29 April 2015}}</ref>
==Bibliography== === Articles === * {{cite news |title=Adam's Fall |url=https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/adams-fall/Content?oid=962276 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Coast |date=31 January 2008}} * {{cite news |title=Unembedded in Afghanistan |url=https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/unembedded-in-afghanistan/Content?oid=1306294 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Coast |date=1 October 2009}} * {{cite magazine |title=The Master of Spin Boldak |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/the-master-of-spin-boldak/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |magazine=Harper's Magazine |date=December 2009}} * {{cite news |title=Last Stand in Kandahar |url=https://thewalrus.ca/last-stand-in-kandahar/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Walrus |date=12 December 2010}} * {{cite news |title=How Long Can the U.S. Ignore Systemic Torture in Afghanistan? |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/how-long-can-the-us-ignore-systemic-torture-in-afghanistan/246548/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Atlantic |date=12 October 2011}} * {{cite news |title=Our Man in Kandahar |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/our-man-in-kandahar/308653/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The Atlantic |date=November 2011}} * {{cite magazine |title=The A-Team Killings |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/feature-a-team-killings-afghanistan-special-forces/ |access-date=12 December 2021 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=6 November 2013}} * {{cite news |title=Whoever Saves a Life |url=https://medium.com/matter/whoever-saves-a-life-1aaea20b782 |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=Matter |publisher=Medium |date=14 September 2014}} * {{cite news |title=Inside the Fall of Kabul |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/magazine/fall-of-kabul-afghanistan.html |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=10 December 2021}}
=== Books === * {{cite book |title=The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees |date=2022 |publisher=Harper |isbn=978-0063058583}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{C-SPAN|100076}}
{{LivingstonAward International Reporting}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aikins, Matthieu}} Category:Living people Category:American magazine writers Category:Canadian male journalists Category:George Polk Award recipients Category:New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni Category:The New Yorker people Category:Rolling Stone people Category:Wired (magazine) people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Livingston Award winners for International Reporting Category:Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism winners Category:Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners Category:Atlantic Journalism Awards recipients