Cathy Otten

Cathy Otten is an award-winning British journalist and author. Based in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2013, she is best known for her book-length investigation into the enslavement of Yezidi women by ISIS, With Ash On Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State (OR books 2017), described by The Los Angeles Review of Books as: "The best kind of humanist journalism: lucid, transparent, grimly realistic.… (N)o book has covered it better." 

She writes features and magazine articles and appears regularly on TV and radio. Her work has been featured on CNN, NPR, the BBC, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Guardian. Cathy was nominated for the One World Media Print Award and won the New Voice Award for her coverage of Trump's Muslim ban and the war with ISIS. "Her work spoke to the very best dedication to her craft and subjects," said the judging panel.