the paper has won many local and national honors, and former "gambit" writer katy reckdahl was awarded hunter college's james aronson award for social justice journalism in 2002 for her series on the mistreatment of the homeless, and a 2002 casey journalism center medal for distinguished coverage of children and family issues for her report titled "louisiana juvenile justice" on the tallulah correctional center for youth . other former writers and editors include michael tisserand, author of the books "the kingdom of zydeco" and "sugarcane academy", scott jordan, former spokesman for the louisiana democratic party, and rich collins, a member of the children's music group imagination movers.