In an effort to extend the legacy of Michael Hastings, who died tragically in 2013, BuzzFeed News will sponsor an annual, year-long fellowship for reporting that honors Michael's fearless example. The second fellowship will be awarded this fall.

The Michael Hastings Fellowship is for proven journalists with strong sources and major stories to their credit who are interested in focusing for a year on a single subject consistent with Michael's reporting career, and producing a series of stories on that topic. Proposed topics may include American foreign and national security policy; federal or local counterterrorism policy; the U.S. military; whistleblowers; the "war on drugs"; government secrecy; federal law enforcement; the military-industrial or security-industrial complex; veterans; the border; human rights in conflict zones; and other related topics.

The fellow will also have a demonstrated ability to challenge powerful institutions, and a clear vision for a project that tells stories that those in power have no particular interest in having told. The reporter's background may be in investigative journalism; or it may, like Michael's, be in powerful narrative journalism; or it may be a combination of the two.

The product of the fellowship — which can be as few as a half-dozen stories, or as many as dozens, and which could also ultimately result in a book — will be published by BuzzFeed News on BuzzFeed.com. The reporter will work with BuzzFeed News' senior editorial staff, and may be based in New York or elsewhere.

The fellow will receive a stipend of $85,000, plus benefits and related expenses for one year.

Michael Hastings, who died at age 33, wrote stories that would not otherwise have been written, and found emotionally gripping ways to tell stories about vital policy decisions. He wrote for a wide range of new and old media outlets, from Newsweek to Gawker to GQ. His best-known piece, 2010's "The Runaway General" in Rolling Stone, raised questions about the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan, prompted the dismissal of the top American commander there, and sped the end of the U.S. engagement in that conflict. He then covered the 2012 election campaign and Hollywood for BuzzFeed. He was the author of three books.

The first Michael Hastings National Security Reporting Fellow, Gregory Johnsen, has written widely acclaimed coverage of the uses and limits American power after Sept. 11, 2001, including "60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History." Johnsen will join BuzzFeed's foreign desk as a staff correspondent after the conclusion of his fellowship.