The New Yorker’s Ava Kofman Wins a 2026 National Magazine Award
The New Yorker’s Ava Kofman has received the 2026 National Magazine Award for Profile Writing, recognizing her portrait of the influential far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin. The article, Kofman’s first as a staff writer, traces the trajectory and political reach of its subject, whose supporters include Vice-President J. D. Vance and a coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires. The organization that conferred the award, the American Society of Magazine Editors, last month honored “Power Houses,” a collection of New Yorker images shot by the photographer Gillian Laub.
To report the winning Profile, Kofman delved deeply into the writings of Yarvin, who popularized the concept of being “red-pilled”—a riff on a scene in “The Matrix”—and turned it into a rallying cry among conservatives. A former tech designer, Yarvin has advocated for “the liquidation of democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law,” and called for the establishment of an American monarchy, arguing in 2011 that Donald Trump is “biologically suited” to reign as king. Kofman’s article chronicles the path of such ideas from the fringes to the mainstream, outlining their influence on figures such as Peter Thiel, Stephen Miller, and Elon Musk. Near the end of the piece, Kofman joins Yarvin, whom she describes as “America’s most famous living monarchist,” at the “Coronation Ball,” a D.C. event celebrating Trump’s second Inauguration. She and other journalists were later removed by security.
“Power Houses,” which received the 2026 ASME Award for Best Entertainment and Celebrity Photography, takes readers inside the living rooms of notable New Yorkers, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Spike Lee, and Gloria Steinem. Furniture, pets, and the residents themselves infuse the images with both ambiguity and meaning, creating a rich mosaic of city life across ages, backgrounds, and boroughs.
The National Magazine Awards, first presented in 1966, are given in association with Columbia University’s School of Journalism. The New Yorker has won sixty, including Kofman’s 2026 prize.
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Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America
The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.
Power Houses
Inside the living rooms of notable New Yorkers.
