Dawn Turner Trice

Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner Trice and investigative reporter Jason Grotto will be out of print — at least temporarily — while spending the next year at Harvard University.

The two are among 24 journalists from around the world selected for prestigious Nieman Fellowships at Harvard during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Calling it “a time to reflect, reboot and renew,” Trice will study creative nonfiction writing and screenwriting for documentary films during her year in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “This means that I will be leaving you for a while to spend the coming school year studying and soaking up every wonderful thing the fellowship offers,” she told readers in a farewell column Monday.

Jason Grotto

Grotto, a member of the Tribune’s watchdog team, will study finance, accounting and economics to enhance his investigative reporting skills.

“We are very pleased that Dawn and Jason were honored with Nieman Fellowships,” said Gerry Kern, senior vice president and editor of the Tribune. “It is a great opportunity for them to expand their horizons. Our expectation now is that they would rejoin the Chicago Tribune at the conclusion of their fellowships.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin was the last Tribune writer awarded a Nieman Fellowship. He spent the 2012-2013 academic year studying architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.

Former Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski, a 1990 Nieman Fellow herself, is curator of the Nieman Foundation.