The Atlantic has sent out its call for entries for the 2006 Michael Kelly Award. The prestigious award, named after the Atlantic editor killed during the Iraq War, honors "honors a writer or editor whose work exemplifies a quality that animated Michael Kelly’s own career: the fearless pursuit and expression of truth."

The NYT's Nicholas Kristof won the 2005 Award, presented during an emotional ceremony at the Atlantic's Washington offices. The judges this year said,"Kristof linked the word 'genocide' to the ongoing persecution of black Africans in the Sudanese region of Darfur, and focused attention on the continued sexual exploitation of young women in the brothels of Cambodia. With conviction, passion, and audacity, Kristof tugged at the world's conscience, in the best tradition of Michael Kelly."

Finalists last year were the New Yorker's David Grann, the LAT's Kim Murphy, 5280's Maximillian Potter, and the New York Times Magazine's Elizabeth Rubin.

The award, by the way, is one of the richer ones in journalism: With a $25,000 award included for the winner (adn $3,000 for each finalist), it's like a Weitz Prize for Excellence in Reporting on European Affairs, Neiman's Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers, and Medill's Mogerson Prize for Investigative Reporting COMBINED (dollars-wise at least).

> Speaking of the Atlantic, operations and bittersweet celebrations are wrapping up in Beantown as the magazine readies itself to be a Washington-based publication in 2006. As former editor Bob Manning said, "Long may The Atlantic grow, surge, and prosper. But please don't change the name to 'The Potomac.'"

> Speaking of the Atlantic Part II: At the company's holiday party Friday at Georgetown's tony Halcyon House, was that Publisher John Fox Sullivan dancing up a storm and legal eagle Stuart Taylor Jr. swirling, twirling, and twisting on the dance floor as if he was the Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore?