JUDGES’ COMMENTS

ARTS CRITICISM Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Washington City Paper, “Pine of the Times,” “Sheet Smart” and “Pain by Numbers” by Jeffry Cudlin • Cudlin’s work is rich in historical knowledge while never paying too much homage to the edifices of tradition. It’s a pleasure to read: lucid, intimate in tone, teaching the reader something without making it feel like a lesson. His piece on Christo and Jeanne-Claude was my favorite of anything I read. It really made me think differently about an artistic team whose work I thought I already understood. (Powers)

Second Place: Village Voice, “Kill One for the Gipper,” “What We Learned about the Election in This Summer’s Movies” and “Deep Freeze” by Jim Hoberman • So much fun, such a great gift for contextualization, so supple at drawing lines between cinema and sociopolitics. (Patterson) • This guy is very knowledgeable, with excellent insights into politics. (Drabelle)

Third Place: LA Weekly, “Benjamin Button,” “Diary of the Dead” and “The Visitor” by Scott Foundas • Foundas’s piece on George Romero’s “Dead” movies was my second-favorite of the whole bunch. It really got at some larger ideas but was also very grounded in the material at hand, and its tone was friendly without being too flip. The take-downs of “Button” and “The Visitor” were also very effective - unsparing but, again, not flip, with the objections at their core very relevant and well-stated. (Powers)

Honorable Mention: LA Weekly, “From Reverence to Rape,” “Waugh and Remembrance” and “Was Roman Polanski a Pedophile?” by Ella Taylor • Taylor is tough and unsentimental without veering into the arrogance that many critics who see themselves as ‘speaking truth to power’ often express. (Powers) • I like this reviewer’s excellent writing and her ability to tie the review of a single movie together with a discussion of some larger issue, such as Waugh’s sexuality, the nature of the Holocaust movie, etc. (Drabelle)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Metroland, “Not as They Seem,” “Branching Out” and “Everything Is Illuminated” by Meisha Rosenberg • This critic writes strongly but unpretentiously, with astute comments and a particularly nice sense of organization. As you read her, you feel confidence in her judgment and a sense of assurance that her pieces are going somewhere. (Drabelle) • Confident & clear & charming. Informed by theory without being enslaved to it. Accessible to the layman without pedantry or oversimplification. (Patterson) • Rosenberg’s work is a great example of a critic making a difference in her region. She isn’t afraid to make interventions, arguing for patronage of certain institutions and helping readers see certain artists’ work in totally new ways. But her writing is ego-free, reasonable, and unpretentious. She was my favorite in her category. (Powers)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 1 Second Place: Independent Weekly (NC), “Kipper Kids,” “El Greco” and “USPO” by Amy White • White’s writing is ambitious and brave–two qualities that don’t always combine in criticism. Her piece on the Spanish art show at Duke University expressed serious opposition to certain curatorial decisions in a way that was forceful without being snide or dismissive. (Powers)

Third Place: Metro Pulse, “So, This Is My Life...” by Charles Maldonado

ARTS FEATURE Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: LA Weekly, “No Exit Plan” and “The Life and Death of JT Leroy” by Nancy Rommelmann • This piece surprised me. I was tired of the subject (JT Leroy) but it went deeper and to weirder and less predictable places than I’d expected. I also thought it was very well-reported and structured. It had a kind of detective vibe to it. Great lede. (Frey) • Precisely written and superbly structured and reported. But this story’s most impressive accomplishment may be its sneaky grafting of some sophisticated, nuanced cultural criticism to a rollicking, readable profile. (Roberge)

Second Place: Chicago Reader, “Life Without a Script” by Anne Ford • I thought this was a totally solid profile: good reporting, nice dedication to a local micro-celeb, and a kind of portrait of non-failure. Someone else could have made this a tragic story, or a cloying tale of redemption. I thought it walked a nice line. (Frey) • Nicely executed profile told from just the sort of unexpected angle that alt-weeklies have traditionally–and fruitfully–specialized in. (Roberge)

Third Place: The Pitch, “A Picture of Hope” by Jason Harper • This story is not as slick as some other finalists, but it does the best job of placing the artist at its center into a wider context, asking the reader to think about the conditions in which musicians do their labor. It takes a refreshing step beyond the bubble, offering an evocative profile of one artist while also opening the story out for an informative discussion of how artists scrape together health coverage (or not). In this respect, it’s the most SIGNIFICANT story in the batch. (Solomon)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Metro Pulse, “Lowbrow Genius” by Coury Tourczyn • A thoroughly reported look at a subculturally resurrected figure–a classic alt-weekly mode. Nicely captures the spirit of fun embodied by its subject. (Roberge) • Well-reported story that vividly evokes the work of a fascinating, forgotten artist and the drive of the people trying to restore his work. (Solomon)

Second Place: Fort Worth Weekly, “Magical Misery Tour” by Jeff Prince • I thought of all the entries this was the best written and most colorful. The writer got great quotes and really created a vivid picture of Ft. Worth past. I thought it was a lot of fun. (Frey) • A complete surprise. My expectations for a tour of defunct rock clubs couldn’t have been lower, but this one is well-paced and gracefully written, with just the right number of no-they-didn’t! anecdotes. (Roberge)

Third Place: Metro Santa Cruz, “Unlock & Roll” by Curtis Cartier • Who knew? Interesting and enjoyable read about the ingenuity of bands finding a work-around for economic and municipal restrictions that make it hard for them to practice. (Solomon)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 2 BLOG Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Houston Press, “Hair Balls” by The Houston Press Staff • Clear voice, consistent wit and short and snappy posts. (Futterman) • I loved this blog. The writers clearly understand that they are writing FOR THE INTERNET and take full advantage of all of its capabilities - while also writing posts that are smart, funny, engaging, and original. Nice work! (Shafrir)

Second Place: Washington City Paper, “City Desk” by The Washington City Paper Staff • Nice range of subjects covered, good use of multimedia. I liked the original reporting as well. The writers seemed to understand how to write for the web and engage the audience. (Shafrir)

Third Place: San Francisco Bay Guardian, “Politics Blog” by The San Francisco Bay Guardian Staff • Tightly written posts with a clear voice. (Futterman)

Honorable Mention: Austin Chronicle, “Newsdesk” by The Austin Chronicle News Staff

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Santa Fe Reporter, “Swing State of Mind” by Dave Maass and Staff • Clear voice, well-written. (Futterman) • LOVED this blog. Great original reporting done in an opinionated way and good use of Internet tools. (Shafrir)

Second Place: Gambit Weekly, “Blog of New Orleans” by The Gambit Weekly Staff • Sharp, funny and successfully makes national news/topics relevant to locals. (Futterman)

Third Place: Arkansas Times, “Arkansas Blog” by Max Brantley

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 3 CARTOON

First Place: “Tom the Dancing Bug” by Ruben Bolling • Consistently inventive, great at parodying other strips, and not afraid to tackle the big topics (i.e. God). (Heer) • In one of the most laugh-out-loud strips that currently runs in the print media, Bolling smartly boils down centuries of spiritual searching into ‘Worst ... super-hero ... partner ... ever!’ and economic theory into ‘Lucky Ducky.’ Bolling’s sly, playful parodies are equal parts thought-provoking and fun to read and look at. (Tisserand)

Second Place: “Slowpoke” by Jen Sorensen • I really enjoyed the variety of topics which Jen Sorenson commented on, as well as admiring her for finding a number of topics which have not been satirized as often, and coming up with witty takes on these. I would enthusiastically argue that this was the real standout of all the cartoon entries. (Marguiles)

Third Place: “Worst-Case Scenario” and “Hip Tip” by Kenny Be (Westword) • I thoroughly enjoyed Kenny Be’s entries. He makes excellent points, his drawing style is completely original and the amount of research and time spent in executing these pieces from start to finish could not be anything but a labor of love. I particularly enjoy the caricatures of local and national figures, and the unexpected scenarios in which we find them. The pieces made me laugh out loud, and I was amazed at the amount of information he is able to pack in to one cartoon, without losing your attention. (Winters)

Honorable Mention: “Mr. Fish” by Dwayne Booth (LA Weekly)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 4 COLUMN Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Phoenix New Times, “Globe High School Censors its Student Newspaper,” “Peter Singer to Talk at ASU” and “Sarah Fenske’s in Dogged Pursuit” by Sarah Fenske • These columns are the best in class–she reported the hell out of each piece, even the personal one, and the results are fair but strongly argued, presented in an easy, persuasive style. The newsier passages are clear and move nicely, and then every once in a while, there’s a writerly sentence that’s more than pretty–it’s moving or even paralyzing in its power: “You never meet anyone who regrets having kids, only people who regret not having them.” Probably someone has written those words before, but it works beautifully here. Great stuff. (Fisher) • Excellent Peter Singer column, complemented beautifully by the rather touching-under-the-laughter piece about her mother. (Fitzgerald)

Second Place: Dallas Observer, “No Nature for Old Men,” “What’s in a Nombre” and “Eat My Dirt” by Jim Schutze • What a great sense of black comedy, presented in an easy, conversational style. These are classic outrage columns, big city division, boosted by strong reporting. The execution doesn’t always match up to the concept, as each of the columns could stand some tightening. The writing is strongest when it’s presenting a narrative, sometimes stretching too far when the writer is mainly describing. The pieces tend to be a bit too discursive, but there’s great energy and verve here, and finely tuned sense of outrage. (Fisher)

Third Place: Philadelphia Weekly, The Angry Grammarian by Jeff Barg • Splendid concept and a columnist personality that matches the concept nicely. The mix of fun, anger, passion and persnickety-ness works. The explanations are clear and the humor carries us along. (Fisher)

Honorable Mention: OC Weekly, ¡Ask a Mexican! by Gustavo Arellano • Near-perfect pitch tone, near-perfect blend of information and entertainment, and to this gringo sordo, a near-perfect mix of espanol y ingles. (Fitzgerald)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Folio Weekly, “Sugar Land,” “Dumb & Dumber” and “History Lesson” by Anne Schindler • Good passion here, especially in the history piece, where institutional knowledge and strong reporting remind us why there’s such a thing as a professional journalist. The arguments throughout are strong and couched in an easy, conversational style. Conceptually, the pieces mostly hang together, especially in the nice pivot in the ignorance piece, tying together two sets of facts with strong string. (Fisher) • Very powerful third piece about Floridian amnesia. Beautifully done. (Fitzgerald)

Second Place: Colorado Springs Independent, Ranger Rich by Rich Tosches • Funny stuff–bolstered by a good, tough gotcha piece. (Fisher) • Hilarious, each column keeps a perfect pitch throughout. Only a very talented writer could get away with the LPGA piece. (Fitzgerald)

Third Place: Portland Mercury, In the Shadows by Matt Davis • It’s refreshing to read a columnist who takes us to meet people we would otherwise not meet and who captures their humanity with strong descriptive writing and a keen ear for quotes. (Fisher)

Honorable Mention: Orlando Weekly, Police Beat by Jeffrey C. Billman • Nice swingy rhythm to these items. I had thought the snarky police column thing was pretty played out, but this is quite good. (Fitzgerald)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 5 COLUMN (POLITICAL) Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Village Voice, “Bloomberg’s Velvet Coup,” “Bloomberg’s Term-Limits Coup” and “Eliot Spitzer Goes Down” by Tom Robbins • He combines persuasive judgment with exquisite irony, and especially in his piece on Mayor Mugabe, is funny. Also, Robbins manages to be appropriately ajudgmental, without taking himself too seriously. (Navasky)

Second Place: Chicago Reader, The Works by Ben Joravsky • Well done reporting and interesting analysis of issues of import to Chicago readers. (Zeller)

Third Place: Metro Times, “Just Go,” “Guilty as Charged” and “Obama’s Moment” by Curt Guyette & W. Kim Heron • The cases for why the Mayor should go and is guilty, are well-stated, and in the first case, definitive. (Navasky) • Blunt and well stated arguments for ousting Kwame Kilpatrick and voting for Barack Obama. (Zeller)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Birmingham Weekly, “Gettin’ Gay with Leapin’ Larry,” “Alabama Exceptionalism” and “Leapin’ Larry Fights the Feds” by Kyle Whitmire • These columns were both strongly opinionated and deeply nuanced. They were nicely written and rooted in fact rather than bloviating. Nice job. (Horton) • Whitmire has a distinctive, and appropriate voice with wicked asides to make his probing pointed. This war on dumb is smart. (Navasky)

Second Place: San Luis Obispo New Times, “Don’t mess with Uncle Sam,” “Pot and Porn” and “Semantics, Romantics” by the New Times Staff • The Shredder is very funny, and especially in Don’t Mess With Uncle Sam, manages to combine a Populist’s rage with common sense. (Navasky)

Third Place: Pacific Northwest Inlander, “Interdependents,” “Rotten Crumbs” and “Obama for President” by Ted S. McGregor • _Engaging prose and nuanced analysis. (Zeller)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 6 COVER DESIGN Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Miami New Times, “Share the F*&%ing Road,” “I’m HIV Positive,” and “Drop-Dead Sexy” by Pam Shavalier • In simplicity there is strength and these covers with their strong concept and single graphic image are handled extremely well. Especially strong is the Jan 31 cover, ‘Share the ....’ with the bold san serif type and beautifully rendered tire marks and suggestion of Asphalt. Like the opening credits for a movie, it stops readers cold. The color statements, effective display type and integration of images into the logo on Feb. 14 and Nov 20 make for arresting covers that demand to be picked up. (Fennell) • These covers have great pickup appeal. Headlines and nameplate are integrated into the covers very effectively. (Parker-Gilbert)

Second Place: Willamette Week, “The Queer and the Qur’an,” “Nope” and “Yeah!” by the Willamette Week Design & Production Staff • How could readers not be drawn to these inventive covers? Strong images, bold type and little clutter help these covers send a clear message and do so artfully with varied graphic and illustrative approaches. There is a strong mind behind the creation of these images, one who knows how to effectively convey the editorial sensibility of this weekly. (Fennell) • Stunning visuals. Stellar storytelling. Imagery coupled with just the rights words. Clever at its best. The ‘Yeah’ cover is wonderful, a visual explanation of those feelings paired with classic iconography. Love it! (Mansfield)

Third Place: Riverfront Times, “Cougar Heaven,” “The Veep Fair” and “Lip Service” by Tom Carlson • The covers each had strong, original and eye-catching concepts. I like how the covers do not rely on gimmicky fonts or tricks. The bulldog cover is well done without being trite. The attention to small details comes across on the Lip Service cover’s nameplate skewed in the glasses. Nice execution. (Parker-Gilbert)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Santa Fe Reporter, “The Politics of Eating,” “Down and Dirty” and “Vote” by Angela Moore • The designer of these covers has a good eye for illustration and a talent for integrating image and type. The covers are bold, the color effective and there is a unifying graphic sensibility that gives Santa Fe Reporter a strong identity. These covers can easily compete with large circulation weeklies. (Fennell) • Good, bold solutions. Illustrations are wonderful. (Mansfield) • The typography on both ‘Down and Dirty’ and ‘Vote’ is very strong. Using the I as a smoke stack is clever and effective. And the ‘Vote’ cover’s type, image and even the nameplate all work nicely together. (Parker-Gilbert)

Second Place: Boston’s Weekly Dig, “I Want to Ride My Flycycle,” “Spring Dining Guide” and “Abs of Wood” by the Weekly Dig Staff • In recent years many art directors have shied away from illustrative covers because they believe photography better conveys a sense of reality. However, Boston Dig embraces the potential for illustration using a variety of styles that give this publication a distinctive identity in a crowded market. With bold colors, funky images and breezy tone, readers can spot a Dig cover anywhere. (Fennell) • The Weekly Dig covers are intriguing in thought and function. I think the covers question the usual formatted concept of a headline and blurb design. The covers are truly alternative but slick and appealing at the same time. The placement of the headline as part of the necessary items, i.e. website address and tagline, is unique. The colors and energy of the covers would make me pick it up but the bonus is that the images aren’t obvious. The meaning is subtle yet pleasing. (Parker-Gilbert)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 7 Third Place: Nashville Scene, “Gettin’ Jacked,” “Best of Nashville” and “Reckless Love” by Rob Williams • I know that bottle cover might be cliche, but it’s so well done! (Mansfield)

EDITORIAL LAYOUT Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: LA Weekly, “Death of a Hollywood Beauty” by Darrick Rainey • Haunting and gritty. Nice job matching typography and visuals to the story. (Powell) • Nice use of typography. Image on the opening spread really set the tone for the piece. (Wachter)

Second Place: NOW Magazine, “Banning Handguns in Canada” by Troy Beyer • This package creates visual attention throughout. (Nesbitt) • Nice multi-faceted approach to a complicated story. The bullet holes are realistic and not over-used. (Powell)

Third Place: Village Voice, “The Ultimate Re-Vamping” by Ivylise Simones and Howard Huang • Nice design. Clever and creepy! (Powell)

Honorable Mention: Phoenix New Times, “Green Fatigue” by Peter Storch and Jasmine Hobeheidar

Honorable Mention: Village Voice, “Prodigy’s 25th Hour” by Ivylise Simones

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Gambit Weekly, “Gone Daddy Gone” by Amy Morvant • Very well done. The lack of color doesn’t reduce the impact of the package. Good use of type and space and the irregular columns add a different feel to the presentation. (Nesbitt) • Opening spread is really nicely done. Loved the headline treatment on the first page. Wispy smoke is really nice. (Powell) • Really nice photo illustration on the opening spread. Good use of photography throughout. (Wachter)

Second Place: Pacific Northwest Inlander, “Fall Arts Preview” by Chris Bovey • Superb. From concept through execution. The use of images, typography, color palette and space make this an exceptional entry. The only people who wouldn’t relish this package are those that are blind. (Nesbitt) • Creative and original take on something that has the potential to be very boring. Really nice color choices. I like the use of definitions. (Wacther)

Third Place: Fast Forward Weekly, “The Cinematic Sounds of Calgary’s Underground” by Riley Brandt and Kris Twyman • Very inventive. Really like the posters. (Wachter)

Honorable Mention: San Luis Obispo New Times, “Secrets of Recycling” by Patrick Howe, Alex Zuniga and Steve E. Miller • This is a great bit of graphic storytelling. (Powell)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 8 FEATURE STORY Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Westword, “The Good Soldier” by Joel Warner • Outstanding blend of strong reporting and fast-paced narrative writing. Unforgettable descriptions from Iraq. A moving look at a soldier fighting an important battle. Wonderful piece. (Simon)

Second Place: Creative Loafing (Atlanta), “Sober” by Thomas Wheatley • A gripping personal story about coming to terms with alcoholism. Loved the ending in particular–really gave me insight into recovering alcoholics. Excellent piece. (Simon)

Third Place: Westword, “Father of Invention” by Joel Warner • Very charming. Bonus points for the topic–for finding this family and delving into their story. (Argetsinger)

Honorable Mention: Houston Press, “Mental Anguish” by Margaret Downing • This story was gripping from start to finish, with extensive reporting. It was a page-turner. (Rowe) • A solid and important story. (Simon)

Honorable Mention: LA Weekly, “From Silver Lake to Suicide” by Barry Isaacson • A compelling and well-documented window inside a long-forgotten world. (Simon)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Texas Observer, “Private Trauma” by Patrick Michels • Damn near perfect. Took me a couple minutes to get into, that’s the only thing I’ll count off for. Otherwise, excellent structure and layered details and clean unpretentious writing and deep reporting. (Argetsinger) • I had a hard time putting this story down. I loved it. Vivid and evocative, gripping and provocative–all the adjectives applied to the best narrative features should be applied here, too. Excellent portrait of both the man and his environment. Wonderful work. (Simon) • Clearly superior to all the others (Tobar)

Second Place: Fort Worth Weekly, “His Last War” by Jeff Prince • An excellent story with a fresh and intriguing angle, great development of the characters, vivid writing, empathetic without being maudlin. The narrative swept the reader along to the surprising, and very moving, ending. I thought it worked well to frame the story at the start with Mr. Noblett’s appearance at the Fort Worth Weekly office. (Simon)

Third Place: Texas Observer, “See No Evil” by Emily DePrang • Effective use of point-of-view to build a strong case, without edging into over-the-top advocacy. Very good job. (Simon)

Honorable Mention: Pacific Northwest Inlander, “Boys of Summer” by Luke Baumgarten • This story was executed with skill, wit and aplomb. After reading this, I wish someone would tape a documentary on the Indians or another Single-A team. Well done! (Jeffers)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 9 FOOD WRITING Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: LA Weekly, “Breaking Free,” “Keep on Trucking” and “A Proper Brasserie” by Jonathan Gold • The weave of humor and erudition is irresistible. It’s hard to come up with better prose-stylists writing about food today. (Anderson) • 3-D writing. How does he do it? Vivid. Passionate. I feel as though I have been beamed into the scenes he describes, and that I’m there at the table with him. I wish! (Katzen)

Second Place: Riverfront Times, “The Pope of Pork” by Kristen Hinman • This is a beautiful story that tackles the daily life and personal history of a pioneering pork farmer from every angle. This is excellent journalism that just happens to be about food–a credit to ‘food writing’ in general. (Alexander) • A thorough, informative and mostly captivating profile of an important national figure viewed through the lens of a local. I felt I could have read it in any number of larger, respected national publications. (Anderson) • Great, great writing. She tells a story, she informs. Crisp, spare, strong, to-the-point prose. (Katzen)

Third Place: City Pages (Twin Cities), “Spam: It’s Not Just for Inboxes,” “With Honeycrisp’s Patent” and “Manny’s Attempts to Raise the Steaks” by Rachel Hutton • The ‘Honeycrisp’ story shows ingenuity, creativity, and skillful reporting: a pleasure to read. (Alexander) • Relies on deep reporting and an entertaining writing voice to draw you in to columns about apple science and canned meat. And the review is also authoritative. A versatile writer of a column I’ll make a point to read more regularly. (Anderson) • So well-informed and entertaining! I learned, I enjoyed, I was totally sucked in–as with any good literature. (Katzen)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Metro Santa Cruz, “The Jester’s Quest” by Christina Waters • This is a lively profile of a complicated person, and the writer manages to get great sources and quotes while properly contextualizing the subject’s importance in the world of wine. Well done! (Alexander) • The full-bodied portrait of an American original at a professional/personal crossroads. The writer also demonstrated a firm grasp of wine. (Anderson) • Deeply researched, crisply written, richly informative. (Katzen)

Second Place: Monterey County Weekly, “Spit Fire Flavor” by Mark C. Anderson • This profile of a brash renegade is engaging and fun to read, and treats its subject with respect and integrity while managing to skillfully describe his food. (Alexander) • I finished fascinated by the subject–and scheming of ways to get to Monterey County on a Monday night. (Anderson)

Third Place: Santa Fe Reporter, “Fast Approaching,” “Chase the Dragon” and “Peanut Gallery” by A. Qasimi • The most fluid writer of the bunch. The writer made personal history and anecdotes relevant to the topics–something not easy to achieve. (Anderson) • Fresh, original voice. Informative, unusual subject matter. The writing has cadence. Very nice! (Katzen)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 10 ILLUSTRATION Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Riverfront Times, “7-Up vs. Coke, Part 2” by Brian Stauffer • A provocative piece done with just the right edge and just the right use of color. A great mix of simplicity and intelligence, well-executed. (Collins) • If this doesn’t make you want to find out what the story is about, I don’t know what will. Great colors, reinforced by the tidy, understated headline treatment. Brilliant. (Glaros) • This has such strong imagery. It really made me wish that I could have read this story! Very compelling. (Quinn)

Second Place: Village Voice, “A Wing and a Prayer” by Christian Northeast • This piece has great fun–and unforgettable imagery–with an offbeat story. It’s a fine example of an illustration doing a terrific sales job for the publication. (Collins)

Third Place: Baltimore City Paper, “Sizzlin’ Summer” by Paige Shuttleworth • Nice idea, fanciful detail. Very decorative and engaging. (Quinn) • Fabulous color palette, and the hose-type masthead rocks. (Glaros)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Santa Fe Reporter, “Eureka” by Richard Borge • Outstanding concept, with terrific detail that makes the illustration come alive. The artist creates a lot of pleasant little surprises in the piece, rewarding the captivated reader for every moment spent looking at it. (Collins) • Nice representation of the creative process, and not a lightbulb in sight! (Glaros)

Second Place: Fast Forward Weekly, “Twin Peaked” by Julie McLaughlin • I adore the color palette, and the hand type is awesome. (Glaros) • I particularly like the integration of the headline and use of the ‘hat’ and ‘boot’ detail. (Quinn)

Third Place: Seven Days, “Say Yes!” by Matt Mignanelli • Awwwwww. I recently got married, so that might give me a bias, but I think this totally captures the romance, fear and excitement of ‘that’ moment, and in a super fun way. (Glaros)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 11 INNOVATION / FORMAT BUSTER Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Washington City Paper, “Washington City Paper Files for Chapter 86 Content Bankruptcy” by Erik Wemple, Andrew Beaujon and Jule Banville • Overall, I think Wemple & Co. did an, uhh, innovative job of explaining the travails of all journalism to the public, which in D.C. is a pretty sophisticated lot. The ‘petition’ was trenchant, witty and well- written. (Leiby) • By their own admission, it was a gimmick. But it was a funny one and as one of the few people who still pick up the Washington City Paper for the ride to/from work, it was appreciated. It’s the sort of thing that probably resonates with alt weeklies around the country. It didn’t cost anything. And it pissed off the suits. Format, busted! (Lovell) • You can imagine the focused brainstorming that led to this high concept. It’s very clever, and manages to address the very real struggle for readership that journalistic forms face today. It’s definitely innovative. (Moses)

Second Place: Metro Times, “The Adventures of Kwame-man” by Curt Guyette, W. Kim Heron and Sean Bieri • This took guts. And it worked. (Leiby) • The comic format was an inventive, engaging way to tell the story of Kwame Kilpatrick. (Lovell)

Third Place: Village Voice, “The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide to the Right-Wing Blogosphere” by Roy Edroso • I really liked this feature–it was well-researched and informative–but it left me wanting more. (Lovell)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Santa Fe Reporter, “Things To Do in Santa Fe When You’re Undead” by Dave Maass, Ursula Coyote and Random Zombie Fans. • The sheer breadth of this ‘format buster’ earns it the top spot. While not perfect, the package was obviously a labor of love, sports some great community participation and is anchored with a decent feature piece. (Lovell)

Second Place: Metro Pulse, “Superhero vs. Autobiographical Comics” by Coury Turczyn, Matthew Everett and Travis Gray • Sophisticated work. Both the conceit and the writing here impressed me. (Leiby)

Third Place: Fast Forward Weekly, “Christmas Sex Stories Contest” by Tom Bagley, Genevieve Simm and Travis Sengaus • You really can’t go wrong with XXX-mas cartoons, can you? (Leiby) • An inventive idea featuring some great art that could have been sort of one dimensional–Xmas sex stories is a fun feature. (Lovell)

Honorable Mention: Orlando Weekly, “Anti-Coverage for Anti-Pop” by Justin Strout and Shan Stumpf

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 12 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Phoenix New Times, “Prescription for Disaster” by John Dickerson • Unbelievably weak laws and lax regulation of bad doctors in Arizona is indisputable after reading this series of stories. One can only hope it will lead to comprehensive reform. (Houston) • A great investigation into a matter of life and death for the public. Good job of digging deeply into hard- to-get records and creating an original database to analyze the information. The story uses powerful and disturbing examples to show the dangers of a system that allows addicted doctors to continue practicing. The sharp writing made the series hard to put down. Bravo! (Marshall)

Second Place: Westword, “State of Emergency” by Jared Maher • This story illuminated the problems with the emergency response system and showed how data were being adjusted to make response times look better. (Houston)

Third Place: Baltimore City Paper, “The Shadow Economy Series” by Jeffrey Anderson, Edward Ericson Jr., Chris Landers, and Van Smith • With its incisive reading of documents and numerous interviews, this series provides a diagram of interlocking relationships between politicians and criminals and of corruption in Baltimore. (Houston)

Honorable Mention: New Times Broward-Palm Beach, “To Hug a Porcupine” by Deirdra Funcheon • A horrific tale of how the state of Florida mismanages foster care. The telling of the story from the viewpoint of one family demonstrates how badly a system can go wrong. (Houston) • Fascinating, disturbing, incredibly compelling. (Wolff)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Orlando Weekly, “Might Makes Right” by Jeffrey C. Billman • Well-chosen topic, thoroughly researched, compressed into one well-written and concise article. (Daragahi) • Solid investigation. The reporter proved with lots of great evidence that the Orlando police force doesn't crack down on officers who use excessive force. (Whelan)

Second Place: Santa Barbara Independent, “Greka’s Monkey Business” by Ethan Stewart • Well-chosen topic condensed into a commendably compact package. Well researched and I kind of liked the conversational tone. (Daragahi)

Third Place: Folio Weekly, “Don’t Bother” by Susan Clark Armstrong • Investigating sexual abuse is always tough, and the reporter got great access. (Daragahi)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 13 MEDIA REPORTING / CRITICISM Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Washington City Paper, “One Mission, Two Newsrooms” by Erik Wemple • Thorough and definitive, Wemple shows absolute command of his territory. He uses bright writing and specificity to make unique observations on how internal turf battles shape the ways that large newspapers are adapting to the new media environment. (Snyder)

Second Place: Westword, “The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down,” “Five Rocky Stars Who Could Be Going Up” and “Last Rites on the Rocky Mountain News’s Twittering” by Michael Roberts • Well-reported and compellingly written stories which tell specific news and also speak to larger trends–everything quality media criticism does in spades. (Deggans)

Third Place: Philadelphia Weekly, “Pushing Paper” by G.W. Miller III • Well-reported and comprehensive, Miller gives a broad view of how one experiment in saving the printed daily has fared. (Snyder)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Arkansas Times, “Fear Factor” by David Koon and Gerard Matthews • Well-reported, in-depth examination of an important topic following a tragedy. Does an outstanding job of questioning the cult of personality that is encouraged and promoted by television news operations. (Salzman)

Second Place: Independent Weekly (NC), “Cuts to Run Deep at N&O,” “The Herald-Sun’s Nosedive” and “What’s Up? More Bad News at The N&O” by Fiona Morgan • Good context on the layoffs, and I like the touch of letting readers know where to reach these characters. (Salzman)

Third Place: Orlando Weekly, “The Incredible Shrinking Sentinel” by Jeffrey C. Billman, Billy Manes, Deanna Sheffield and Bob Whitby • An excellent, in-depth story about Sam Zell's dismantling of the Orlando Sentinel. (Kennedy)

Honorable Mention: Tucson Weekly, Media Watch by John Schuster and Tim Vanderpool

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 14 MUSIC REPORTING / CRITICISM Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Village Voice, “Down In Front” by Rob Harvilla • Rob Harvilla’s music writing is some of the best you’ll read these days. His knowledge of his subject matter is strong and he writes with an authority; one trusts him. But his strong suit is his humor. These pieces, particularly his hilarious send-up of Chinese Democracy, and his review of Death Magnetic, are terrific. (Goldberg) • What alternative journalism music writing is all about. I especially like that he takes popular subjects then glazes them with the alt journo flavor. Game over. (Inoue)

Second Place: Boston Phoenix, “Newport,” “Nights Out” and “Fourth Quarter CDs” by Jon Garelick • There aren’t many writers these days covering jazz, and the work he is doing is important, keeping the spotlight on an important American music. (Goldberg)

Third Place: Dallas Observer, “Swagger Like Us” by Pete Freedman • I love it when a piece introduces me to a regional scene before it blows up, and in the age of blogs and internets it’s even nicer when an alt-weekly does that. Loved the story. (Inoue)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Pacific Northwest Inlander, “Abe Kennedy,” “Noise” and “Pap” by Luke Baumgarten • Informed, entertaining, smart without being snarky. I like it. (Joyce)

Second Place: Independent Weekly (NC), “Pity for Black Kids,” “Lil Wayne” and “Billy Corgan’s Bombast” by Robbie Mackey • Informative, fluid writing that touches not just on the artists, but on the larger solar system they exist in–with an appealing dose of backed-up opinions. (Joyce)

Third Place: Orlando Weekly, “Euro With a Thousand Faces,” “Wither Without You” and “Beach Blanket Brilliance” by Justin Strout

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 15 NEWS STORY (LONG FORM) Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: SF Weekly, “Snitch” by Ashley Harrell • ‘Snitch’ is a terrific story. This is show-don’t-tell journalism at its best. The dialogue is wonderful. Deanna is a fully developed character who gains dimension as the story goes on. And we also get to know others, most notably, Damian, her son (although I wanted to know what happened to his baby). The problem of getting people to come forward in the case of these kinds of urban homicides is well documented. But the complexity of such situations is rarely explored. Harrell does it beautifully without ever hammering us over the head with the myriad reasons why people don’t say what they saw. The story is also a beautifully structured narrative with the artful use of detail that one finds in good fiction. Harrell also effortlessly gained our trust with her clear authority over her material. Brava! (Fremon) • A strong, well-written, gritty, sad story that vividly highlights a new kind of fear that millions of ghetto- dwelling Americans have to live with. Paradoxically, the story’s heroine is anything but heroic in much of her life, but in the episode portrayed here she showed courage. And, unlike far too many news stories, this one did not shape its material towards a happy, upbeat ending. (Hochschild)

Second Place: Village Voice, “Missing in Action” by Sean Gardiner • The story is powerful, the issue fresh and worthy. (Fremon)

Third Place: Willamette Week, “Señor Smith” by Beth Slovic • This series felt to me like an investigative coup: a U.S. Senator who thunders against immigration while employing illegal immigrants. It clearly required enterprise and determination to dig out this material, from sources none of whom were eager to talk. (Hochschild)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Folio Weekly, “Trial & Error” by Gwynedd Stuart • Stuart has a good grasp of the issue and writes with authority. She builds her story carefully and with clarity until, by the end of the piece, we feel both informed and persuaded. Her characters are well drawn. Her facts seem well grounded. All in all, a very powerful story. (Fremon) • Fantastic work. A really riveting, outrageous, frightening story, the kind this category and this medium is all about. Well done. (Hernandez)

Second Place: Pacific Northwest Inlander, “Busted” by Nicholas Deshais • A fine job conveying a complex fiasco–at the intersection of a new, manmade problem and an ancient, natural drug. (Ripley)

Third Place: Texas Observer, “Systemic Neglect” by Dave Mann • This story stands out, both for the quality of its writing and reporting, as well as for the unusual and difficult nature of the subject. I especially appreciate that the writer raises tough questions and does not always provide answers–more real than so many who insist reporting must always arrive at definitive answers. (Charisse)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 16 NEWS STORY (SHORT FORM) Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: City Pages (Twin Cities), “Midwest Oil Mining a Crude Idea,” “Local Couples Fight for Gay Rights,” and “Holly Collins Returns” by Beth Walton • Overall good, in-depth reporting. (Barclay) • Beth writes with the direct force of a battering ram, clear and incisive. Great stuff! (Fagan)

Second Place: Miami New Times, “Killers in the Can,” “Burn Baby Burn” and “Voter Fraud Ahead” by Francisco Alvarado • Excellent election story, solid investigation of fire employee, good narrative flow on brothers crime piece. Overall very strong writing. (Barclay)

Third Place: Salt Lake City Weekly, “Secret Police,” “Crime and Prejudice” and “Graybar Hotel” by Ted McDonough • Terrific exposes and explanations of important issues, told clearly and fully. (Fagan)

Third Place: San Francisco Bay Guardian, “Godzilla Versus Mothra,” “Nuclear Fallout” and “Vicious Circle” by Sarah Phelan • Good work on subjects that would have been much denser to read in lesser hands. (Fagan)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Louisville Eccentric Observer, “Taming the Wild West,” “Turn off the Radio” and “Double Whammy” by Phillip Bailey • Each story is strong and well-written. Best all around entry. Gay flier story is particularly interesting. (Barclay)

Second Place: Portland Mercury, “Blog This,” “Taser Eraser” and “Leonard’s Secret List” by Matt Davis ____ • Nice, straight-ahead writing, covering all the bases. (Fagan)

Third Place: Pasadena Weekly, “The Weekly is No Tom Tombrello,” “The Great Pasadena Bond Caper” and “Hater Nation” by Joe Piasecki • Wonderful range of writing style and subject choice. To go from a whimsical tone on the interview with Pasadena’s richest man to a serious exploration of bond money embezzlement is impressive. (Fagan)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 17 PHOTOGRAPHY Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Baltimore City Paper, John Ellsberry, Frank Hamilton, Frank Klein, Michael Northrup, Ryan "Rarah" Stevenson and Jefferson Jackson Steele • By far the best combination of styles of photography–from active and personal portraiture to intimate documentary photojournalism that helps a reader connect with the subject. (Dilley) • Originality and innovative environmental portraiture make this photography both visually compelling and captivating journalism. (Foerstner)

Second Place: Riverfront Times, Jennifer Silverberg • The candid of the Dream Girls contest is an absolute classic with an offbeat spin. Talk about the perfect ‘decisive moment.’ This image delivers the concept. (Foerstner)

Third Place: Washington City Paper, Darrow Montgomery • These lyrical photographs parlay light, shadow and composition into provocative expressions of personalities and the sculptural quality of objects. (Foerstner)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Style Weekly, Scott Elmquist • Strong, in-your-face photography that really grabs a reader and asks them to pay attention. (Dilley) • These powerful and enterprising compositions tug at the heart and the eye. (Foerstner)

Second Place: Folio Weekly, Walter Coker • A fascinating singular portfolio that ranges from the quirky to the consequential, all the while asking the reader to look deeper into the image. (Dilley)

Third Place: San Luis Obispo New Times, Steve E. Miller • A vision that was pulled off with style and macabre humor that most likely connected well with the audience. (Dilley)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 18 PUBLIC SERVICE Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: Long Island Press, “Heroin” by Robbie Woliver, Timothy Bolger, and Michael M. Martino • Compelling work. Well-reported, sourced and very well written. (Phillips) • The epitome of public service reporting. Excellent. (Secret)

Second Place: Houston Press, “Selling You” by Craig Malisow • Well-written and researched article. (Woodall)

Third Place: Metro Times, “Detroit’s Big Burn” by Curt Guyette • Very comprehensive–nice work. (Phillips) • Engaging, well-researched and written journalism. The story reminded readers about the past, brought them up to the present to a crucial decision that was being made without enough public scrutiny, then provided alternatives to what a future would be like with the incinerator. (Woodall)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Metro Pulse, “The Jackie Walker Story,” “Local Hero” and “A Promise Kept” by Betty Bean • Fantastic work, really, just fantastic work. (Phillips) • Well-written, engaging and clear example of the article having an impact. (Woodall)

Second Place: San Antonio Current, “Hot Wired, The Series” by Greg Harman • Good comprehensive coverage. Liked the detail on the public record requests. (Phillips)

Third Place: Arkansas Times, “The Fayetteville Shale Play” by Gerard Matthews, David Koon and John Williams • An issue likely to written about much more often. Good work. (Phillips)

Honorable Mention: City Newspaper, “Reportage of the Rochester, NY Public Defender Search” by Christine Carrie Fien, Jeremy Moule and Mary Anna Towler

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 19 SPECIAL SECTION Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: LA Weekly, “LA People 2008” by Laurie Ochoa and LA Weekly staff • Something about this just feels right. The intro is well-written and inviting and the stories the editors chose to tell are anything but routine. Also, props to the photo editor–the pictures are beautiful. (Hilberman) • Beautiful design, photography and typography throughout the entire section. Consistent, interesting and worked well as a package. Amazing high-quality text and visuals. (Lim)

Second Place: Seattle Weekly, “Teach Me Tonight: Seattle Weekly’s 2008 Fall Arts Guide” by Mark D. Fefer • This is the most creative concept in the category. The writing is engaging and the instruction manual- style is useful and fun. The design is strong and consistent. I’d read one of these each year for sure. (Hilberman)

Third Place: City Pages (Twin Cities), “Comix Issue” by Freelance Contributors • Creative theme. Really interesting way to tell a story. (Lim)

Honorable Mention: Village Voice, “Best of NYC” by Village Voice Staff • Hundreds of little stories that present their subject with so much lyricism you can’t help but want to explore that pub or bookstore or taxidermist. It feels clear that this was a massive effort and each item wasn’t just researched but actually experienced. (Alvendia)

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Seven Days, “What’s Good: The Student’s Off-Campus Guide to Burlington” by Don Eggert, Cathy Resmer and Paula Routly • This little guide is great. The pocket size is perfect for the students it was designed for. The design is strong and the format is right for the market. (Hilberman) • Really fun and youthful section. I loved the attitude that was brought through the whole package. The writing was funny and really geared towards its college-aged audience. Nice vibrant illustrations and design. (Lim)

Second Place: North Bay Bohemian, “Arcadia” by North Bay Bohemian Staff • The DIY angle is a fresh take on the classic food issue, and it’s nice to see one of these sections that is about community, rather than just selling ads to restaurants. It’s a well-done re-imagining of a food guide as more than just favorite restaurants. (Hilberman)

Third Place: Source Weekly, “The Source Weekly’s Dining Guide” by Source Weekly Staff • Beautiful package. Clean design, beautiful photography, well-written stories. Definitely had its own look and feel–consistent all the way though. (Lim)

Honorable Mention: Cincinnati CityBeat, “Annual Manual” by CityBeat Staff • This is a nice insert. It’s very guidebook-like and seems like something readers would sock away for future use. (Hilberman)

Honorable Mention: Santa Fe Reporter, “Devour: A Locavore’s Guide to Santa Fe” by Gwyneth Doland, Larry Kohr and Angela Moore • The issue has great articles. ‘Eat Like a Man’ made me laugh out loud. I like the creative design and the issue-specific content like the grocery store chart. Well done. (Hilberman)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 20 SPECIAL TOPIC: ELECTION COVERAGE Circulation 50,000 and over

First Place: City Pages (Twin Cities), “Moles Wanted,” “Police Raid Anarchist Homes” and “Dozens of Journalists Arrested at RNC” by Matt Snyders • This is why we need alt-weeklies and why we’ll miss them if they disappear. (Grim) • Fantastic lede on the ‘mole’ story. I was immediately hooked and wanted more. (Moulitsas) • I thought all three articles were really well written, and very chilling. (Shapiro)

Second Place: Phoenix New Times, “John McCain’s Fame is Based on His POW Status, But He Has Abandoned Fellow Veterans” by Amy Silverman • As a vet myself, the story reminded me of yet another reason I couldn’t stand McCain. (Moulitsas) • Wonderfully researched and reported story. A very important story which still plays well, after the heat of the election has passed. (Shapiro)

Third Place: Village Voice, “The Book of Sarah (Palin)” by Wayne Barrett

Circulation under 50,000

First Place: Texas Observer, “John McCain’s Gramm Gamble” by Patricia Kilday Hart • A sweeping look at Phil Gramm’s economic policies and ties to lobbyists–and how they do or don’t fit with what the McCain campaign was saying on those issues. The story is still relevant, even months after the election; some of the deregulation Gramm pushed is now being blamed for the economic collapse. (Madden) • I actually remember this piece from the election, as it became a blogosphere-wide sensation when it was released. Solidly reported and researched, this piece broke critically important news just as the debate over the economy–and Gramm’s role in destroying it–started to dominate the campaign. If I had the choice of selecting the best piece of election coverage–for ALL publications regardless of circulation–this would be it. (Moulitsas)

Second Place: City Newspaper, “Election Action 2008” by Christine Carrie Fien, Jeremy Moule, Tim Louis Macaluso, Mary Anna Towler, and Karl Slominski • How lucky was it for these guys that their corner of the world sported some of the hottest political action in 2008. And how lucky for their readers that they rose to the occasion, providing the great kind of [election] race profiles from Congress to County Clerk that are lamentably absent from most newspapers today. And the ‘Action Comic’ theme gives life to what can often be a boring subject matter. Fantastic work. (Moulitsas)

Second Place: Portland Phoenix, “Election 2008 Coverage” by Portland Phoenix Staff and Freelancers • Entertaining writing on topics that mattered to the election and to Portland (and Maine) readers. The pieces helped bring national issues to bear for a local audience. (Madden) • I remember people all over the country wondering who the heck the super delegates were, and how they leaned, so great job on giving their readers that info. One of the cycle’s big disappointments was Tom Allen’s senate campaign, so it was nice to see that these guys were right on top of that situation. The Allen bashing was delicious, but always (and this was important to me) fair and solidly backed up. And I love how it was weaved in and out of several pieces, as I’m particularly drawn to long- term narratives. (Moulitsas)

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 21 JUDGE BIOS

ARTS CRITICISM

Gil Asakawa was music editor of Denver’s alternative newsweekly Westword from 1980-1991, and was also entertainment editor and art critic for the Colorado Springs Gazette from 1992-1996. He has also written freelance articles for NY Rocker, Request, Creem, Pulse and Rolling Stone magazines, and has authored Being Japanese American (Stone Bridge Press, 2004) and co-authored The Toy Book (Knopf, 1991).

Chris Barsanti is a senior writer for filmcritic.com and a frequent contributor to PopMatters. His writing has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Playboy, In These Times, Film Journal International, Publishers Weekly, and the Chicago Reader. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online, and the Online Film Critics Society.

Mark Blankenship is a critic and reporter who has written for The Village Voice, The New York Times, Variety, and many others. He currently runs The Critical Condition (www.thecriticalcondition.com), a website for pop culture criticism.

Dennis Drabelle is the author of Mile-High Fever: Silver Mines, Boom Towns and High Living on the Comstock Lode, which was recently published by St. Martin’s Press. In 1996 he won the National Book Critics Circle award for excellence in reviewing. He is a contributing editor of the Washington Post Book World.

Mark Feeney has written for the New Republic, New York Observer, Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, and other publications. A past vice president of the National Book Critics Circle, he is the author of Nixon at the Movies: A Book about Belief (University of Chicago Press) and has taught at Brandeis and Princeton Universities.

Art Janik is a second-year MBA student at the Yale School of Management. Art’s professional background is in media and communications, with both technical and business experience, including design and project management, that spans publishing, theater fundraising and organizations. Art received his BS and MS in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School.

Jane Kim is an assistant editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, where she writes media criticism, and works with Kaya Press, an independent publisher of Asian diaspora literature. She lives in Brooklyn.

Thomas Leitch is professor of English and director of film studies at the University of Delaware and senior editor at Kirkus Reviews. His most recent book is Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ.

Andy Markowitz is a former editor of Baltimore City Paper. He is currently attempting to master various bright, shiny new media toys as multimedia editor and blogmaster for Transitions Online, an online magazine and journalism training institute covering the countries of the former communist bloc.

Troy Patterson is the television critic at Slate, the film critic at Spin, and a regular book reviewer for NPR.org. He has also written about art, entertainment, and culture for publications that include The New York Times Book Review, GQ, Wired, and Entertainment Weekly. He began his career freelancing arts pieces for Metro Santa Cruz. He lives in Brooklyn.

Ann Powers is chief pop critic at the Los Angeles Times. She got her start in the alternative press, was a columnist and editor at the SF Weekly during the 1980’s, and worked at the Village Voice in the 1990’s. She’s also published a few books and worked at the New York Times.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 22 Chris Richards is a writer based in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, The Fader, Washington City Paper, New York Magazine’s Vulture blog and New York Press.

David Sterritt is the chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, and was an arts critic at The Christian Science Monitor for almost 40 years. He lives in Ojai, California.

ARTS FEATURE

Amy Chen is an assistant editor at Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine in New York City. She is a Medill School of Journalism graduate (BSJ04) and the past recipient of the National Press Club's Ellen Masin Persina scholarship. She has worked as a city government and cops reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif. She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.

Gary Cohen has spent his professional life as an actor, writer and editor. In addition to appearing on TV and in commercials for companies like Tweeter (now defunct), he wrote a column for AHF magazine (now defunct). He’s also written for many smaller (now defunct) publications. Cohen has a master’s degree from the Medill School at Northwestern and is currently the managing editor for Community Magazine Group in Chicago (still in business … for now).

Amanda Cuda is a general assignment reporter and features writer for the Connecticut Post newspaper in Bridgeport, Conn. In addition to her work with the newspaper, she maintains the TV blog I Screen You Screen www.iscreenyouscreen.blogspot.com.

Hillary Frey is culture editor of the New York Observer.

Lisa Fung is arts editor for the Calendar section at the Los Angeles Times, where she oversees a staff of editors, reporters and critics covering theater, visual arts, architecture, classical music, dance and opera. Prior to joining the Calendar staff, Fung was an assistant business editor, overseeing technology, entertainment and personal finance coverage. She helped launch the Times’ National Edition in 1993. Fung joined the Times in 1988 on the Metro/Suburban desk. She came to the Times from the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, where she worked as an assistant entertainment editor, an editor on the national/foreign desk and a reporter and editor in Metro.

Mary Huhn is a features writer for the New York Post, where she focuses mostly on music. She has also worked for Adweek and Mediaweek magazines as well as Rolling Stone online. Her first and only alt-weekly piece was printed in The Village Voice in the late ‘80s and cited by Spy magazine as an example of terrible writing in the Voice. She’s been working in journalism since she moved to New York City in 1985 from the Philadelphia suburbs.

Jeff Koyen is the former editor-in-chief of New York Press. He’s lived and worked Prague, Bangkok, Philadelphia and, currently, Brooklyn. His freelance work can be found irregularly in the New York Times, New York magazine, Forbes Traveler, Penthouse and Fortean Times.

Josh Kun is a professor of Communications, Journalism, and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC. He is the author of Audiotopia (UC Press, 2005) and And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl (Crown, 2008). He was an arts columnist for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Boston Phoenix from 1998-2005 and has contributed to LA Weekly and the Village Voice.

Tiffany McGee is a freelance writer for People magazine.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 23 Graham Meyer is an assistant editor at Chicago magazine. He has edited several Chicago cover packages, including Nothing but Net: 171 Best Chicago Web Sites and the annual salary survey Who Makes What. He wrote the Chicago cover story How to Deal With a Medical Crisis and an award-winning arts feature, The Power & the Glory, about great pipe organs of the D.C. area, for Washingtonian magazine. He also constructs crossword puzzles and writes music.

Dale Pollock served eight years as the dean of the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he is now a professor in Cinema Studies and Aesthetics. He is president of Peak Productions and Green Street Productions, and has produced 13 features films, four of which were nominated for Academy Awards. A writer at heart, Pollock began his career as the entertainment editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and later worked at Daily Variety and the Los Angeles Times. He has published pieces in magazines such as Esquire, GQ, People and Rolling Stone. In 1984, he published Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, currently in its third edition and fourth printing.

Leonard Roberge was arts editor of the Washington City Paper from 2000 to 2006. He currently indulges his passion for the painstaking by editing book manuscripts and restoring his mid-century-modern house.

Choire Sicha is a freelance journalist in New York. He writes frequently for the Los Angeles Times, covering television and film and personalities.

Alisa Solomon directs the MA in Arts and Culture at the Columbia School of Journalism. A long-time theater critic and political and cultural journalist, she has written for the Nation, New York Times, GuardianAmerica.com, WNYC radio, Forward, American Theater, nextbook.org, and Village Voice, where she was on the staff for 21 years. She is author of Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

Suzanne Van Atten is editor of the Arts and Travel sections of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was A&E editor for the alt-weekly, Creative Loafing (Atlanta), for nine years. She is also the author of the travel guidebook “Moon Handbooks Puerto Rico” and is working on her MFA in creative nonfiction writing at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C.

BLOG

Erica Futterman is the assistant editor for Rolling Stone Online. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and her work has also been featured on Spin.com, among other websites.

Doree Shafrir is a senior editor at the New York Observer. Previously she was an editor at Gawker, where she covered media, and was also the arts and entertainment editor at Philadelphia Weekly.

Whitney Snyder is an associate blog editor at the Huffington Post.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 24 CARTOON

Steve Brodner is a satirical illustrator and has been a regular contributor to Harper’s magazine, the National Lampoon, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Spy and Esquire. His first book, “Fold ‘N Tuck”, an outgrowth of his Esquire page, was published in 1990 by Doubleday and his collected political work was published in “Freedom Fries”, by Fantagraphics Books. Brodner has received numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, Art Directors Club, SPD, SND, American Illustration, Communication Arts. He teaches narrative art at the School of Visual Arts.

Jeet Heer is a Toronto-based journalist who focuses on arts and culture. His articles have appeared in The National Post, Slate.com, the Boston Globe, The Walrus, The Literary Review of Canada, This Magazine, Books in Canada and Toro. He is also finishing a doctoral thesis at York University on the cultural politics of Little Orphan Annie. Jeet Heer is co-editor, with Kent Worcester, of Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004) and A Comics Studies Reader (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009).

Jimmy Margulies is the nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist for The Record. Through King Features, Margulies’ cartoons appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, among many others. His cartoons on New Jersey issues are self-syndicated to newspapers and web sites all over the state. He won the 2007 and 2008 Clarion Award for editorial cartoons from The Association for Women in Communications, as well as the 2005 Berryman Award for editorial cartoons from The National Press Foundation of Washington, D.C.

Michael Tisserand’s first childhood writing was a comic titled “Detective Snorkel.” Failing to get recognition for his work, he turned his back on illustration and, 30 years later, became an AAN editor. As editor of Gambit Weekly in New Orleans for seven years, he increased the comics presence in the paper by frequently commissioning work by Harvey Pekar, Greg Peters, Bunny Matthews and others as cover stories and in cover story packages. Now a writer based in New Orleans, Tisserand is author of the music book The Kingdom of Zydeco (Arcade Publishing) and Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and his Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember (Harcourt). He is presently working on a biography of the cartoonist George Herriman.

Pam Winters worked as a self-syndicated editorial cartoonist from 1998–2005. Her cartoons have been published in the U.S. and abroad, and appeared on a regular basis in such publications as the Washington Post National Weekly Edition, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Her first cartoon was published in her hometown paper, the North County Times. In addition to cartoons, Pam loves tea, handmade paper and anything Scandinavian. She is currently working on a second bachelor’s degree—in Web Design and Interactive Media. You can view her work at pamwinters.com and pamwinterswebdesign.com.

COLUMN

Howard Altman has won more than 50 journalism awards and is happy to return the love. Currently courts and cops team leader at The Tampa Tribune, he was an editor and columnist at the Philadelphia City Paper. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, American Journalism Review, Irish Independent, Salon.com, Wired.com, Penthouse and Philadelphia City Paper. When he’s not badgering writers or banging out stories, he can be found coaching his kids’ teams, or on a fishing pier, contributing frozen shrimp to the underwater economy.

Glen Bleske is chair of the journalism department at California State University, Chico where he has taught since 1994. He has 10 years of newspaper experience as a reporter, copy editor, news editor and editorial writer. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. from the

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 25 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The California Newspaper Publishers Association honored him as the Outstanding Journalism Teacher of 1997.

Natalie Collier is, without question, the most important writer to emerge from Starkville, Mississippi, in the last 40 years. (Her audience far surpasses that of the guy who self-publishes limericks.) She cultivated her writing and editing skills while working at the Jackson Free Press, the state’s only alternative newspaper. Since then, the writer has moved to a larger media market and is the associate editor at N’Digo, the most-read African American weekly publication in the nation. She is responsible for helping devise the paper’s editorial strategy, assigning and writing stories and taming the unruly words of freelance writers. Wherever Natalie goes, she’s sure to take her Southern charm, “I Love Black People” T-shirt, a pair of stilettos and a writing- pad.

Marc Fisher whose column appeared in The Washington Post three times each week, reported on local, national and personal issues. His history of radio since the advent of television, “Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and The Revolution That Shaped a Generation,” was published by Random House in 2007. Prior to launching his column, Fisher was the paper’s Special Reports Editor, responsible for generating and editing features, profiles and other long-form stories for Page One. He also wrote a column in the Post’s Sunday Magazine. Previously, Fisher was a staff writer at The Miami Herald from 1981 to 1986, working for the local news, national news and Sunday magazine sections of the paper. He has won numerous journalism awards, including an Associated Press award for best column writing, an Overseas Press Club award for best interpretation of foreign news, a Society of Professional Journalists award for best magazine writing, and several national awards for a Miami Herald series on racial, ethnic and religious discrimination in South Florida social clubs.

Mark Fitzgerald is editor-at-large of Editor & Publisher. He covers all aspects of the newspapers, from journalism to financials to production. With colleague Jennifer Saba, he writes a daily blog about the business of newspapers, www.fitzandjen.com and host a companion weekly podcast called “Fitz & Jen Give You The Business.” He is a nine-time winner of the Neal Award, sometimes referred to as the Pulitzer Prize of business journalism.

Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Salon.com, where she covers the environment, science and politics. Her work has also appeared in Mother Jones, Ms. magazine and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” For six years, Katharine explored local subcultures for the San Francisco Bay Guardian in her column “Culture Shocked.” Her writing about the dot-com bust is featured in the anthology “Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity,” edited by Michael Lewis.

Audrey Van Buskirk has held nearly every editorial job possible at alternative weeklies beginning as an unpaid Willamette Week intern in 1990. The alt-weekly newsrooms provided good training for managing the lives of three young boys, which she does in Portland, Oregon, with periodic breaks for freelance writing and working on a novel based at a newspaper.

COLUMN (POLITICAL)

John Bicknell is the defense and foreign policy editor for Congressional Quarterly. He has been a journalist for more than twenty years.

Carol Goodhue is the former readers representative and training editor for The San Diego Union-Tribune. She held various editing positions there and at the San Jose Mercury and The Argus in Fremont, Calif., after getting a master’s degree from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s from Stanford. She took a buyout from the Union-Tribune in 2008 and is now pursuing new career options, as the euphemism goes. Got work?

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 26 Sue Horton was editor of LA Weekly from 1994 through 2000. Since 2001, she has been an editor at the Los Angeles Times.

Dan Levine covers the Justice Department and federal court for The Recorder, a legal daily in San Francisco. Before coming to the West Coast he founded an online news service in Connecticut called ctnewsjunkie.com and freelanced for numerous media outlets. He got his start in journalism as a Village Voice intern and also put in a few years at the Hartford Advocate.

Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus of The Nation, was the magazine’s editor from 1978 to 1995 and publisher and editorial director from 1995 to 2005. Before coming to The Nation he was an editor at The New York Times Magazine and wrote a monthly column about the publishing business (“In Cold Print”) for the New York Times Book Review. Navasky is also director of the George Delacorte Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism at Columbia University and a regular commentator on the public radio program Marketplace.

Michael Skube is associate professor of journalism at Elon University in Elon, N.C. He is a former political reporter, editorial writer and feature writer, as well as a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism and the American Society of Newspaper Editors Award for Distinguished Commentary.

Shawn Zeller is a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly in Washington.

COVER DESIGN

Jessica Parker Gilbert is a Chicago-based freelance art director and designer. Before coming to Chicago she spent four years as a features page designer for Florida’s largest daily newspaper, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. While working at the Times, Jessica helped redesign the paper and launch an award-winning magazine. She won two-dozen awards for features design, including a Silver Medal and 11 Awards of Excellence from the Society for News Design for portfolio, single pages and special sections. Previously she worked at The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., as a page designer and copy editor. She has also worked as a freelance writer and photographer.

John Fennell, associate professor in the magazine sequence at the University of Missouri, holds the Meredith Chair for Service Journalism. He began his career as reporter for the legendary Chicago wire service, City News Bureau. His daily newspaper experience includes work as a reporter for the Herald Palladium in Benton Harbor, Michigan and the Chicago Daily News, where he served as “legman” (assistant) to the Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Mike Royko. He was a writer and later editor of the international design journal, Step-By-Step Graphics magazine, now renamed Step. He also co-edited the book, Designer’s Guide to Typography. From 1992 until 2005, he was editor of Milwaukee Magazine. Fennell was a board member of the Milwaukee Press Club and the City and Regional Magazine Association. He teaches magazine writing and magazine publishing.

Matt Mansfield is the co-director of the Medill School of Journalism’s Washington news service, and an associate professor at Northwestern University. Mansfield had been deputy managing editor for the San Jose Mercury News in California, where he oversaw design graphics and photography as well as business reporting, before taking a buyout this spring. After that, he joined the masthead of Time Out Chicago as art director, overseeing the magazine's design and photography, before settling on a career change to journalism education. During Mansfield’s tenure, the Mercury News was judged a World’s Best-Designed™ Newspaper, ranked as one of the 10 best papers in the United States by the Columbia Journalism Review, four times won Best of the West for design and graphics, and finished among the top winners at SND, Malofiej Infographics Awards, and Pictures of the Year International for both print and online storytelling.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 27 EDITORIAL LAYOUT

Phil Nesbitt as been involved with print media for over 40 years and has consulted with, restructured and redesigned more than 40 newspapers and magazines around the world. He began working at weekly unit tabloid newspapers and from 1976 to 1981, he was chief of the U.S. Army’s newspaper program. Nesbitt also has worked at The Record (N.J.), Singapore Monitor, Singapore News Publications, Ltd., Chicago Sun- Times and the American Press Institute. He also served as past president of the Society for News Design, led design discussions for API and Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and taught at Loyola University in Chicago. He currently works as a consultant for media and publishing organizations.

Kristen Powell is a designer consultant and trainer for Creative Circle Media Consulting. Kristen brings a reader-focused approach to newspaper design, using images, text and graphics to create pages that offer depth and context for heavy readers and rewarding scannability for light and occasional readers. Her clients have included the Tacoma News-Tribune, the Idaho Statesman, the Telegraph-Herald in Dubuque, Iowa, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, and The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La.

Christine Wachter: After receiving both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Christine came to Catalyst Chicago magazine as an intern. Since joining the full-time staff as the page designer seven years ago, she helped redesign both the print product and the web site. In late 2006 she was named presentation editor of both Catalyst and its sister publication, The Chicago Reporter, and in 2007 launched a complete overhaul of the Reporter.

FEATURE STORY

Amy Argetsinger has been a staff writer for the Washington Post since 1995, and author of “The Reliable Source” column since 2005. She started her career in the Illinois Quad-Cities—and freelanced some stories for Washington City Paper back in the day.

Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine, covering national politics, and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute. He’s also written for the New York Times, Editor & Publisher, The Guardian and other publications, and appears frequently as a political commentator on outlets such as MSNBC and NPR.

Steve Davolt: An ink-stained wretch since the early nineties, Steve Davolt has worked as an editor and writer for American Gardener, Learning Channel Monthly, Washington Business Journal and a host of other small and trade publications. He has freelanced special projects for AAN over the past three years.

Paul Fain is a senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he has covered university leaders since 2004. He writes about many of the hot issues in higher education, including college costs and university governance. As a primary contributor to The Chronicle’s annual executive compensation survey, Mr. Fain is a widely quoted source on presidential salaries and the job market for college leaders. He has won several national and state reporting awards, including the 2008 Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award. Before joining The Chronicle, he wrote for C-Ville Weekly.

Lauren Gelman is a senior editor for Prevention magazine, where she edits health news for the magazine and oversees the web site’s health channel. She has six years of experience in both print and interactive editing and writing for major women's media brands, having also worked as a senior editor at Parents.com, a senior associate health editor for Shape magazine, an associate editor for iVillage.com and an editorial associate at Family Circle magazine. At Shape, many of the articles she edited won National Health Information Awards. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 28 Emily Hagedorn is a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. She joined the newspaper’s staff in October 2008 and covers neighboring Bullitt County. Before Louisville, Emily spent over two years at the Bakersfield Californian covering health. Her work in Bakersfield included a long-term narrative project where she followed four overweight-to-obese young people for close to one year to write about the challenges they faced. She is a 2005 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism, a program which is taught through Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and funded by the Association for Alternative Newsweeklies. Emily graduated in 2005 with a journalism degree from the University of Kentucky. She has also written for the Detroit News, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Virginian-Pilot, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the now-defunct Kentucky Post.

Sandra Haggerty has been a journalism educator for the past 36 years. The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University has been her academic home for 30 of those years. Haggerty’s column-writing experience includes stints at the Oakland Tribune and Los Angeles Times. For several years, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate distributed her weekly column to newspapers across the country. Her research interests include “Youth Gang and Drug Intervention Strategies,” “Using News to Reach and Teach At-Risk Youth” and “Journalism in South Africa.”

Glenn Jeffers: A native of Montclair, New Jersey, Glenn Jeffers spent five years with the Chicago Tribune, covering breaking news, crime, local government and communities in both Chicago and the northwest suburbs. He won a Peter Lisagor Award for his work on the Tribune’s 2004 “Homicide In Chicago” series. As a features reporter from 2005 to 2008, Glenn wrote for the paper’s “At Play” dining and entertainment section as well as Tempo, On The Town, Good Eating, Sunday Arts & Entertainment, Magazine, Travel and Q (Qualities of Life). Before that, Glenn worked as an editor at Ebony magazine and as a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Sarah Kessler is an Anglo-American journalist who lives in New York and works at the Forward newspaper. Her stories have appeared in Women’s Wear Daily, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the Morning News.

Amanda Miller Littlejohn is a former staff writer for the Washington City Paper. Her blog, Mopwater PR + Media Notes, is an online meeting place for journalists, news makers, marketing and PR professionals, and media consumers.

Jacqueline Marino spent five years in the alternative press, writing for The Memphis Flyer and Cleveland Scene. Her stories and essays have also appeared in Cleveland Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor and River Teeth: a Journal of Narrative Nonfiction. She has won several awards for her writing, including a 2000 Clarion Award and FOLIO magazine’s 2007 Gold Eddie Award for best single story among regional publications. She is now an assistant professor of journalism at Kent State University. When she’s not teaching or writing long-form journalism, she’s exploring good writing on the Web and writing about that. Her latest collaborative project is an aviation-themed storytelling site, www.storiesthatfly.com.

Lesley Messer is a reporter for People magazine New York City. In addition to writing, reporting and fact- checking features for the book, she regularly contributes news stories, celebrity reporting and blog posts to People.com. In the past, Lesley has written about everything from fashion to international happenings for publications including Women's Wear Daily, The Rotarian and Editor & Publisher.

Neal Pollack has written four books: Alternadad, Never Mind The Pollacks, The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature, and Beneath the Axis of Evil. He is the editor of Chicago Noir, a collection of crime stories published by Akashic Books and set in his former home city. From 1993 to 2000 he was a staff writer at the Chicago Reader. In 2000, Rolling Stone Magazine named him “Hot Writer,” whatever that means. In 2001, his Anthology won the Firecracker Award for best independently published fiction. He was featured as a “Writer To Watch” in a 2002 issue of Book Magazine, though they didn’t actually give him a watch.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 29 Caroline Preston is a senior reporter with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she has worked since 2004. She covers nonprofit management, fund raising, and giving.

Alisa Quart is the author of two non-fiction books, Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers (Basic Books, 2003) and Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child (Penguin Press, 2006). She is currently working on her third book, about the effect of subcultures on the mainstream, for Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her books have been translated into eight languages. She is a contributing writer to Mother Jones as well as Columbia Journalism Review, where she writes a media column. She also writes for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic and many other publications. In addition, she teaches at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Jennifer Rowe: Since fall of 1998 Jennifer has taught six magazine classes in the Missouri School of Journalism including Magazine Editing, Magazine Design, Advanced Magazine Design, Magazine Staff, Intermediate Writing and Lifestyle Journalism. She is also editorial director of Vox, an award-winning weekly city magazine that appears in the Columbia Missourian newspaper and is distributed throughout Columbia. Jennifer also served as president of an association of editors during that time. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism. Having served as a contributing editor for Italian Cooking and Living magazine as well as the Magazine of Cucina Italiana for more than five years, Jennifer has had freelance articles in Elle, Real Simple, Westways and Missouri Life magazines, among others. In 2004 Jennifer was a recipient of the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award at the University of Missouri.

Annys Shin is a former staff writer for the Washington City Paper. She is now a business reporter at the Washington Post.

Darran Simon is an education reporter at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Darran has also worked at the Miami Herald, the Daily Record in New Jersey and at the Dow Jones Newswires. Darran holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern and a bachelor’s from the University of Rhode Island.

Stephanie Simon is a national reporter with the Wall Street Journal, based in Denver.

Kurt Soller is a reporter at Newsweek, where he writes stories for print and online. He also created and runs a blog, Readback, that focuses on reader feedback and best practices at Newsweek. As a magazine journalist, his work has run in a variety of publications including BusinessWeek, New York Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Spin and Venus Zine. A native of New Hampshire, he holds a bachelor’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Kurt currently lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Hector Tobar is a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the paper’s bureau chief in Mexico City and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s published two books, numerous essays, and hundreds of newspaper stories. In 1992, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as part of a team covering the L.A. riots for the Los Angeles Times.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 30 FOOD WRITING / CRITICISM

Kelly Alexander is a writer based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the author of the critically acclaimed biography Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate (Gotham, 2008). For many years she was a senior editor at Saveur magazine, where she wrote numerous feature stories for that publication. In 2003, her article “Hometown Appetites,” an in-depth homage to the great American food writer Clementine Paddleford, won the James Beard Journalism Award. Prior to joining Saveur, Alexander worked as the restaurant editor of Microsoft’s New York Sidewalk and as an assistant editor at Food & Wine magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, the New Republic, New York magazine, Slate, Real Simple magazine, Travel + Leisure, Newsweek, and many other publications. Her story “Multicultural Meat,” about the cross-cultural significance of brisket, was nominated for a Bert Greene Award for Food Journalism from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Alexander can be heard frequently on NPR stations around the country and especially on “The State of Things,” which airs daily on WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Brett Anderson is the restaurant critic and features writer for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and a former staff writer for the Washington City Paper. His writing has appeared in Gourmet, Food & Wine, the Washington Post, Salon and the Oxford American, among others; it’s also been anthologized in six editions of Best Food Writing and three of Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing. He’s the winner of two James Beard Foundation Journalism Award and eleven writing awards from the Association of Food Journalists.

Kelsey Blackwell: Ready for any place that didn’t consider Jell-O a suitable dinner-party dessert, Utah- native Kelsey Blackwell, headed to Chicago. There, she received a degree in Magazine Publishing from the Medill School of Journalism and launched a food blog that frequently highlighted the best flourless cupcakes in the world (Sweet Mandy B’s). Now in Birmingham, Ala., with Southern Living Magazine as a travel writer, Kelsey can’t think of a better place to explore bite by bite.

Nicole Price Fasig is a staff editor at PCMag.com, specializing in hardware. She’s also in the process of launching a food blog focused on New York, where she’s based. Nicole studied magazine publishing at the Medill School at Northwestern University and, prior to that, wrote for the Coast News, an alternative weekly based in Encinitas, Calif. Her work has appeared in PC Magazine, Popular Science, Working Mother magazine, and other regional and national publications.

Mollie Katzen is best known as the creator of the now-classic Moosewood Cookbook. With 10 titles and over 6 million books in print, Ms. Katzen is largely credited with moving healthful food from the “fringe” to the center of American dinner plates. She has been a consultant to Harvard University, UC Berkeley, and University of Massachusetts, and has collaborated with Walter Willett, MD of The Harvard School of Public. Katzen’s newest endeavor (launching in fall 2009), “Get Cooking,” will include books, a website, and video series for beginning cooks.

Jeffrey Lee is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter and editor. He has served as senior associate editor for EcoHome Online and associate editor for Building Products magazine, where he was awarded the ASBPE Young Leaders Scholarship. He graduated as top scholar from the Medill School of Journalism in 2006.

Christine Speer is a senior editor at award-winning Philadelphia Magazine, where she edits the front of the book, as well as writing and editing short and longer-form stories and service packages. She came to Philadelphia from Indianapolis Monthly magazine, where she spent three years as a food writer and editor. Speer, a multiple Society of Professional Journalists award-winner, is a graduate of Indiana University and Chicago University.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 31 Heidi Yorkshire is a journalist and author that has written about food, wine and travel for more than 25 years. A former restaurant critic for Willamette Week, she also wrote a weekly wine column for The Oregonian, and her work has appeared in Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure, the Wine Spectator and many other publications. She is the author of Wine Savvy and Simply Wine.

ILLUSTRATION

Tracy Collins is senior director of print and multimedia operations at the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, supervising the paper’s design, photo/video, graphics, technology, copy and wire desks. He has also served as presentation editor and convergence editor. He was graphics and design editor then assistant managing editor for news during a seven-year stint at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Tracy has done extensive redesign and new-product design, as well as designing tabs, broadsheets and magazines for papers ranging in circulation from 16,000 to 515,000. He has led departments ranging from 5 to 150, and his staffs have helped decorate his office with more than 100 state, national and international design and reporting awards.

Stephanie Glaros is art director for Utne Reader magazine. An Aries all her life, she requires lots of attention and can frequently be found bossing people around. Her visual influences include the works of Sid and Marty Krofft, Richard Scarry, Shel Silverstein, and Theodor Seuss Geisel. She went to school for a long time and obtained two pieces of paper, one that says she has a B.A. in Women’s Studies, and one that says she has an A.A.S. in Graphic Design. She learned the important stuff from Schoolhouse Rock, the Children’s Television Workshop and 80s pop culture. A Minnesota native who loathes winter, she enjoys photography, travel, and life with her artist husband, Corey.

Sara Quinn teaches in the areas of visual journalism, leadership and multimedia at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Before joining the faculty in 2003, Sara spent nearly 20 years working in newspaper newsrooms including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and her hometown newspaper, The Wichita Eagle. At Poynter, Sara directs the Poynter Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists. She also writes the weekly Visual Voice column for Poynter Online, teaches interactively through Webinars and NewsU.org and speaks at design and journalism workshops around the world. She provides in-house workshops for newsrooms and universities, most recently at the Toronto Star, La Presse in Montreal, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, the Orlando Sentinel, The Oregonian, the University of Wisconsin, University of Missouri and more. Trained as a journalist, designer and illustrator, Sara has edited and designed magazines, books and newspapers. She has been a juror for competitions such as SND, the Best of Cox, Alternative News Weekly, Scripps, news photographers associations and others. She is a former board member for SND and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Sara has a B.A. in journalism and graphic design from Wichita State University and a master’s in illustration from Syracuse University.

INNOVATION / FORMAT BUSTER

Richard Leiby is a longtime writer and editor at the Washington Post.

Aaron Lovell writes about politics and environmental policy in Washington, D.C. He formerly covered high finance and real estate in New York City and was a freelance writer and intern at the New York Press. In addition to co-writing the now-defunct political blog Atlantic Rift, his writing has appeared in Maximum RocknRoll, People, the East Hampton Star, the Patriot-Ledger and the Chicago Daily Herald.

Monica Moses spent 20 years as a news innovator, reinventing papers to make them warmer and more surprising and launching niche websites and magazines. She spent four years at the Poynter Institute, teaching leadership, collaborative storytelling and visual communication. She has consulted with dozens of news organizations, including Isthmus in Madison, Wisc., and judged many journalism competitions,

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 32 including the Pulitzer Prize. Now a communication and organizational consultant, she was recently named one of 25 “Women to Watch” by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Borzou Daragahi is the Beirut-based Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He served previously as the paper’s bureau chief in Baghdad, where he led the team that was recognized as a 2007 Pulitzer finalist in international reporting and won the 2006 Overseas Press Club Award. He was also named a 2005 Pulitzer finalist in international reporting for his coverage of Iraq as a freelance correspondent for the Newark Star-Ledger. He has been reporting for print and radio from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. He has written for the Associated Press, the New York Times, Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle as well as the Independent of London, the Daily Star of Lebanon and the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong. He has produced documentary radio reports for public radio in the U.S. and Canada. Previously he wrote for Money magazine in New York, newspapers in Massachusetts and business publications after graduating with honors from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1994. He is a 1991 graduate of the Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research. He has taught journalism at Purchase College and Pratt Institute in New York.

Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he is a professor and teaches investigative and advanced reporting. He is the co- author of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook and author of Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide. Houston is co-founder and coordinator of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, president of the board of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and a member of the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Before becoming the Knight Chair, he was executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) for 12 years. He also was a professor in journalism at the University of Missouri where IRE and NICAR are located. Houston was a daily journalist for 17 years before he joined IRE. He was an award-winning investigative reporter at The Hartford Courant and at The Kansas City Star where he was part of the newsroom staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of a hotel building collapse.

April Hunt is an award-winning reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Jon Marshall is a lecturer at the Medill School of Journalism and the author of the News Gems blog. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and is writing the book Watergate’s Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse for Northwestern University Press.

Brentin Mock is a Metcalf Institute Fellow for Environmental Reporting at the American Prospect. He also writes for Essence, GOOD and Next American City magazines. Mock formerly wrote for the Pittsburgh City Paper and was an Academy for Alternative Journalism fellow in 2002.

Kelly Virella writes for the Chicago Reporter, an investigative news magazine. Before coming to the Reporter in March 2008, she freelanced in the San Francisco Bay Area, worked as a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times, and as an associate editor at AlterNet. She graduated in 2004 from the University of California at Berkeley with a master’s in journalism and has won a Roy and Barbara Passini Fellowship and an Academy of Alternative Journalism Fellowship.

Steve Weinberg is the author of eight nonfiction books, hundreds of magazine features, reviews and essays. He helps edit the magazine of Investigative Reporters & Editors and teaches part-time at the University of Missouri Journalism School.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 33 David Whelan is a staff writer at Forbes. He mostly writes about health care and philanthropy and is based in Philadelphia. He’s written cover stories on scrap metal, physician-owned specialty hospitals, kids with cancer, the blood test maker Abaxis, diet company Nutrisystem, and the cell phone chipmaker Qualcomm.

Rachel Wolff is an associate editor and features writer at ARTnews, an international art magazine covering contemporary fine arts and based in New York. She has written about real estate, dining, nightlife, fashion, and design for such publications as New York magazine, New York Weddings, Chicago Social, and FrontDesk: New York.

MEDIA REPORTING / CRITICISM

John Burks is a professor of journalism at San Francisco State University where he teaches magazine writing and contemporary magazine. Burks is an adviser to Prism and the online site of Golden Gate [X]press. He was the editor of former City Magazine; former managing editor of Rolling Stone; former editor of San Francisco Focus; and a former reporter with Newsweek, Oakland Tribune, and San Francisco Examiner. He is also the co-writer of Groupies: A Rolling Stone Report and Let It Bleed: Rolling Stones at Altamont.

Eric Deggans is a TV and media critic at the St. Petersburg Times. He originally joined the Times in 1995 as pop music critic, covering everything from the MTV Music Video Awards in New York City to uncovering a fake gospel singer who lied about winning Grammy awards. His blog “The Feed” covers TV, media and modern life. His work has also appeared in the Village Voice, VIBE magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Seattle Times, Rolling Stone Online and the MusicHound series of album guides.

Felix Gillette is a media reporter for the New York Observer where he writes the NYTV column about the business and personalities of TV news. A native of Washington D.C., he has previously worked as a staff writer at the Washington City Paper, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Village Voice. His freelance work has appeared in numerous outlets including the New York Times, Slate, and the Texas Monthly.

Dan Kennedy is an assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University. He writes about media and politics for the Guardian and for his blog, Media Nation (medianation.blogspot.com). Kennedy is a former media columnist for the Boston Phoenix, winning the 1999 AAN award for media reporting and the National Press Club’s 2001 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism. In 2008 he was a finalist for a Mirror Award in media criticism for his Guardian commentaries.

Deidre Pike, former editor of the Reno News & Review, teaches Critical Analysis of Mass Media and writing courses at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Jason Salzman is a writer and media consultant. His articles or commentaries have been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Harvard Journal on Press/Politics, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Nonprofit World, Shaman’s Drum, Sierra, Utne Reader, Westword, and elsewhere. He writes a bimonthly media-criticism column for the Rocky Mountain News and he’s the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. He is president of Effect Communications.

Gabriel Snyder is the editor-in-chief of Gawker.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 34 MUSIC CRITICISM

Joshua Glazer’s journalism career began when the start-up he was selling ads for—Real Detroit Weekly— asked him to review a techno CD for its first issue. A week later he was interviewing international stars Underworld and was hooked. Today, he is the editor and content director of Los Angeles-based URB magazine and URB.com. He has also freelanced for All Music Guide and iTunes.

Michael Goldberg is a distinguished pioneer in the online music space; Newsweek magazine called him an “Internet visionary.” In 1994, after a decade as a senior writer and associate editor at Rolling Stone, Goldberg founded Addicted To Noise, the first music-oriented web site/online magazine. He was editor-in-chief of SonicNet, founded the Neumu.net music site and most recently was editor-in-chief of Mog.com. His writing has been published in Esquire, Downbeat, Details, Wired, Vibe and numerous other publications. He splits his time between Point Reyes, Calif., and Portland, Ore., and is writing a novel.

David Hajdu is the music critic for The New Republic and a professor in the Arts and Culture Program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing and a two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as a winner of the National Magazine Award. He is the author of three books, Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina, and The Ten-Cent Plague, and his articles have appeared in the anthologies Best Music Writing and Best American Magazine Writing. A collection of his criticism will be published this fall.

Todd Inoue—a Sanjaya Malakar fan—broke into the journalism game in 1992 with AAN weekly Metro Silicon Valley where he worked as an intern, music and arts writer, calendar editor and, from 2002-2006, music editor. He currently toils with the iTunes staff in Cupertino, Calif., keeping a cramped toe in the writing game (most recently for The Washington Post, Vibe, Hyphen and XXL).

Cynthia Joyce is the senior web producer for the Nightly News online on msnbc.com. She has written for several local and national publications including Newsday, the Washington Post, Legal Affairs magazine, and still contributes regularly to Salon.com, where she was a founding A&E editor.

Victor Krummenacher was art director of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and is a founding member of the band Camper Van Beethoven.

Alan Light is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, a columnist for msn.com, and the Director of Programming for the public television series “Live from the Artists Den.” He is a former editor-in-chief of Spin and Vibe, and a former senior writer for Rolling Stone.

NEWS STORY (LONG FORM)

Stephanie Banchero has been an education reporter at the Chicago Tribune for 12 years. She covers statewide and national education issues and serves as the paper’s main education investigative reporter. Stephanie has been awarded numerous citations for her work, including two first place awards from the national Education Writers Association, a first-place writing award from the Missouri School of Journalism, The Harry Chapin Media Award, and an honorable mention from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families. In June, Stephanie completed a nine-month Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.

Erika Beras was a 2005 Fellow of the Academy for Alternative Journalism. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism she has won several awards as a student and as a professional journalist. They include the Rolling Stone College Journalism award for entertainment reporting and an Associated Press Sports Editor award for breaking news. A former reporter for the Miami Herald, she currently covers Behavioral Health for WDUQ, the NPR-member station in Pittsburgh.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 35 Michael Booth is a page one news and features writer for the Denver Post, a family movie columnist, and the author of “The Denver Post Guide to the Best Family Films” and “Obama’s Mile High Moment.”

Marc Charisse is the editor of The Evening Sun, a community daily in southcentral Pennsylvania. He is a former professor of communication and is a previous AltWeekly Award winner for media criticism.

Anne-Marie Cusac, assistant professor in the Department of Communication of Roosevelt University, is a George Polk Award-winning journalist. For ten years, she was an editor and investigative reporter for The Progressive magazine. Cusac won the George Polk Award for her article “Stunning Technology,” an investigation of the use of the stun belt in U.S. prisons. She has won the Project Censored Award three times—in 1997, for “Shock Value: U.S. Stun Devices Pose Human-Rights Risk,” in 1998, for “Nuclear Spoons: Hot Metal May Find its Way to Your Dinner Table,” and again in 2003 for “Brazen Bosses.” She has also been recognized with a second-place John Bartlow Martin Award, and a 2002 Milwaukee Press Club Award for magazine reporting. Cusac is also the author of a book of poetry entitled The Mean Days (Tia Chucha, 2001). A second book of poems, entitled Silkie, was published by Many Mountains Moving Press in 2007. Her nonfiction book, Cruel and Unusual: Punishment in America, was published by Yale University Press in the spring of 2009.

Celeste Fremon is an award winning freelance journalist specializing in gangs, law enforcement, criminal justice and education policy, and the creator and editor of WitnessLA.com, a social justice news website. She is also the author of G-Dog and the Homeboys and the upcoming, An American Family, about the life of a parolee and his family during his first four years out of prison. She is a Pereira Visiting Writer at UC Irvine where she teaches literary journalism as it relates to social justice, and she teaches journalism at the University of Southern California. She is on the Board of Directors for PEN USA, and is a Senior Fellow for Social Justice/New Media at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism. She is also a former writer for the LA Weekly, where she won a 2005 AltWeekly Award in the Feature Story category.

Lisa Getter worked for 22 years at daily newspapers, including stints at the Miami Herald where she was twice a member of Pulitzer Prize winning investigative teams, and at the Los Angeles Times. She was a 1995 Nieman Fellow. Most recently, she worked for six years as an investigative reporter in the Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times. Prior to that, she worked for 16 years at the Miami Herald. During her years there, Getter exposed corrupt cops and politicians. Her report on the shortcomings of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service won Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting. She was a key member of the team that won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for public service, documenting how South Florida’s building codes and lax inspection practices led to the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. She was also a writer and reporter on the Herald team that uncovered massive voter fraud in a city election, work that won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. She is now editorial director of UCG, a business information publisher in Rockville, Md.

Daniel Hernandez is a former staff writer of the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly, currently researching a book, blogging, and freelancing in Mexico City.

Adam Hochschild has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and many other newspapers and magazines. His articles have won prizes from the Overseas Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and elsewhere. He was a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine and has been a commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” Hochschild teaches narrative writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and spent half a year as a Fulbright Lecturer in India. His book King Leopold’s Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa was a finalist for the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award. It also won a J. Anthony Lukas award in the United States, and the Duff Cooper Prize in England. His books have been translated into twelve languages and four of them have been named Notable Books of

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 36 the Year by The New York Times Book Review. In 2005, he received a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Mitch McKenney is an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at Kent State University, teaching on the Stark Campus. He’s a former online, features and local news editor at the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio. Before that he worked for the Palm Beach Post in Florida and the Rochester, N.Y., Times- Union.

Rachel Morris is an editor at the Washington Monthly, where she edits and writes long-form narratives and political commentary. Her articles include a Columbia Journalism Review cover story about an Al Jazeera cameraman detained at Guantanamo; and a Washington Monthly cover story investigating Rudy Giuliani’s lesser-known legal abuses as mayor of New York. She is a New Zealand native and holds a Master’s degree from the Columbia Journalism School.

Amanda Ripley writes feature stories for Time magazine and other publications. Her book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why (Crown, 2008), was published in 15 countries. Her coverage of Hurricane Katrina helped Time win two National Magazine Awards, and she regularly appears on national TV and radio to discuss human behavior in disasters. Everything she knows about writing she learned covering crime and courts at Washington City Paper in the late 1990s.

Jessica Rodriguez is a journalist who married her skills (writing) and passion (culture) to forge a career in niche media. At Cornell (B.A.), she cut her teeth at the independent Latino newspaper La Lucha. Her professional career started as features editor for indy mag Urban Latino. And she earned her stripes (and master’s) at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 2004. The New York based wordsmith has written for Batanga Latin Music, BlackPlanet.com, Bridgez, The Buenos Aires Herald, Chicago Journal, City Limits, Daily Southtown, Latino University, Lerner Booster, MiGente.com.

Robert Samuels is an award-winning staff writer at the Miami Herald. His work has been featured in several publications, including the Detroit Free Press, the St. Petersburg Times, ESPN the Magazine, the Washington Post.

Andris Straumanis is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His professional experience includes reporting, editing and photography for weekly newspapers in Illinois and Minnesota. He also serves as editor of an ethnic news web site, Latvians Online.

Jeffrey Young covers healthcare, lobbying, and politics for The Hill, the newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress. Prior to joining The Hill in 2005, Jeffrey spent more than five years with Health News Daily, a healthcare policy and business newsletter. In 2007 and 2008, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized Jeffrey for his work. Jeffrey graduated from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a B.A. in English literature and is a native of suburban Philadelphia.

NEWS STORY (SHORT FORM)

Eliza Barclay is a reporter, multimedia producer, and occasional photographer. Currently based in Washington, D.C, she frequently travels to Latin America and East Africa to report on a range of issues including public health, the environment, immigration, economic development and food. For three years she was based in Mexico City, first as a correspondent for United Press International and then as a freelancer. A partial list of clients includes The Atlantic, the Washington Post, National Geographic News, the Lancet and Slate. She has been awarded fellowships and prizes from institutions such as the International Reporting Project and the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. She has trained and mentored African journalists on covering HIV/AIDS with the media development organization Internews.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 37 Duncan Black, also known by his pseudonym Atrios, is a recovering economist living in Center City Philadelphia. His blog (eschatonblog.com) has been online since April 2002, and currently gets an average of over 65,000 visits per day. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America.

Kevin Fagan has worked as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle since 1992. Fagan has long specialized in enterprise news-feature writing and breaking news, and he takes particular pleasure in ferreting out stories others might not find, from profiling the desperate lives of homeless drug addicts to finding people who sleep in coffins. From 2003 to 2006, he was the only beat reporter in the United States covering homelessness full time. Fagan has also witnessed seven prison executions and covered many of the biggest breaking stories of our time, from the Sept. 11 terror attacks at Ground Zero and the Columbine High School massacre to the massive Bay Area oil spill of 2007. Fagan has won more than 70 national and regional awards, including prizes from Heywood Broun, National Headliner Awards, Best of the West, California Newspaper Publishers’ Association, National Excellence in Urban Journalism and the national James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. He won a John Knight Fellowship in 2006, which allowed him to study issues of the American West for the 2006-07 academic year at Stanford University.

Neil Irwin is an economics reporter for the Washington Post, where he has worked since 2000. He writes about the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve, and has been one of the paper’s lead reporters on the 2007- 2009 financial crisis and recession. He has an MBA from Columbia University, where he was a Knight- Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism.

Anna Maltby is a reporter at Men’s Health magazine. Her work has appeared in print and/or online in Prevention, Time Magazine for Kids, Venus Zine, Today’s Chicago Woman and Skin Inc and has been featured in The New York Times. She holds a bachelor of science degree and a master of science degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Joe Strupp is a senior editor at Editor & Publisher, where he covers general assignment stories on everything from foreign news to features, profiles, journalism issues and business. Before joining E&P in 1999, Strupp worked at several newspapers including the Daily Journal, The Argus, S.F. Independent and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. He has freelanced for Salon.com, Mediaweek, New Jersey Monthly, NJ Biz and Your Sunday Visitor.

Yumi Wilson is an assistant professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University. She recently graduated with an MFA in creative nonfiction from USF and published a literary essay in “The Truth about the Fact,” a literary journal based at Loyola Marymount. She is a former reporter, op-ed editor and deputy readers’ representative at the San Francisco Chronicle.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Kevin Dilley, who lives in Austin, Texas, is a 19-year newspaper veteran with varied writing, print and web design, editing, photojournalism, management and teaching experience. Kevin has been working with Creative Circle since 2000 and joined the group full time in 2001. Kevin came to Creative Circle after working at the Providence Journal where he was a photo editor, assignment editor and designer. His previous experience includes several community newspapers, including the Monroe Evening News in Michigan where he was a staff photographer, photo editor, designer and copy editor. Kevin received numerous state and national accolades while at this newspaper including twice helping the paper win AP’s “Photo Member of the Year.”

Abigail Foerstner teaches science and environmental journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and coaches independent studies in photography. As a working journalist, she also pursues parallel interests in science and the arts. She covered science and the environment as a staff reporter for the suburban sections of the Chicago Tribune for nearly 10 years. She has freelanced hundreds of articles

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 38 on science, photography, art and history for publications including the Tribune, North Shore magazine, Camera Arts, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and other publications. She is the author of James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles, soon to be republished in paperback; of Picturing Utopia - Bertha Shambaugh and the Amana Photographers and of biographical essays in art books on photography.

Ron Reason is a consultant to news media worldwide, specializing in redesigns, training and marketing. His current clients include newspapers, magazines and websites in Nigeria and Kenya, as well as U.S. publications including Advertising Age. He is a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute, where for five years he served on faculty as Director of Visual Journalism. You can view case studies of his news design work at: www.ronreason.com. In addition, he is a photographer and owner of a gallery of contemporary art and photo, in Chicago and online. You can view some of his photo work, and explore recent exhibitions, at: www.artwithinreason.com. Both sites feature blogs with regularly updated commentary and visuals.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Cheryl Phillips is an investigative journalist who currently is the data enterprise editor at the Seattle Times. She previously served as deputy investigations editor and also as an investigative reporter at the Times. The coverage on problems in security provided by the Transportation Security Administration won the national Society for Professional Journalists SDX award for investigative reporting in 2004. She was part of a reporting team on the Seattle Times’ “Your Courts, Their Secrets” series, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer in investigative reporting this year. She also was part of a team that reported on the Washington, D.C., sniper suspects in 2002. That coverage was a Pulitzer finalist in the breaking news category. Previously, she has worked as computer-assisted reporting editor for USA Today’s sports section, as a CAR projects editor at The Detroit News, worked at the Great Falls Tribune in Montana and at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. In Texas, she covered stadium issues of the Texas Rangers baseball team and wrote about then-team owner George W. Bush. She is currently chairman of the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Mosi Secret is a reporter at ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom. He was a staff writer for the Independent Weekly in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, from 2005 to 2008, while also working as a stringer for the New York Times. Earlier, he worked at the Houston Press and the Columbia Journalism Review. Secret won the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for distinguished coverage of children and families in both 2007 and 2008 and the North Carolina Press Association Award for Investigative Reporting in 2007. He won the North Carolina Press Association Award for Feature Writing in 2006.

Angela Woodall is a reporter for the Oakland Tribune, for which she writes the popular column called The Night Owl. She chronicles Oakland’s after-hour characters and haunts and covers everything from entertainment to the police who patrol the city after sunset. Her work from Capitol Hill, New Orleans as well as Bosnia and Serbia has been published in national and international publications, including United Press International, Middle East Times, Washington Times, The Croatian Herald, The Sudan Tribune, and Connect Magazine. She holds a master’s degree in journalism and public affairs from American University in Washington, D.C., as well as a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology from Mills College in Oakland.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 39 SPECIAL SECTION

Pia Alvendia is an independent artist based in Los Angeles. She makes her living as a photo and video editor for Amoeba.com and Amoeba Music in Hollywood. She honed her illustration and design skills at the California Institute of the Arts, where she earned her BFA. When not working, Pia seeks new ways to make money, but has been unsuccessful so far. Please help in any way you can.

Jessica Hilberman is a freelance writer and editor based in San Francisco. She has written for Wired, Self, Sunset, DailyCandy and a variety other publications that reflect her stubborn refusal to pick a topic and specialize. Jessica thinks books are the future, so she recently contributed to the GrassRoutes Guide to Oakland and Berkeley (Sasquatch, 2009). While she huffs newsprint to get the creative juices flowing, Jessica also works at Yahoo!, where she is an editor.

Stephanie Grace Lim. Fueled by high-octane pigtails and a steady diet of frozen yogurt, Stephanie Grace Lim is a photo-illustrating design machine. Winning hundreds of top industry awards, she has been nationally recognized for her photography, illustrations and design. Among them, acclaim from Nikon, Society of News Design, National Press Photographers Association, the California, North Carolina & Michigan Press Photographer Associations, Associated Press, National Headliner Awards, as well as winning Michigan College Photographer of the Year and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Last winter, Sherpas scaled the mountain of toys in Stephanie’s cubicle at eBay’s PayPal division. Previous heroic expeditions have taken place at the San Jose Mercury News, Charlotte Observer, Ann Arbor News and the University of Michigan. Her work has been featured in Life Magazine, People, Ebony, Photographer’s Forum and Print, as well as being chosen to design the 17th Annual San Jose Jazz Festival poster. In addition to being the Principal Creative Designer at PayPal and formerly the Features Design Director at the San Jose Mercury News, she’s been a hip-hop dance teacher, taiko drummer, wushu ninja, and a jet-setting creativity seminar speaker. In her spare time, Stephanie can be found hugging fat kitties, inhaling hair-dye fumes and training to be a world-famous sumo wrestler.

SPECIAL TOPIC: ELECTION COVERAGE

Megan Garber is a staff writer for Columbia Journalism Review.

Ryan Grim is the senior congressional correspondent for the Huffington Post. He is a former staff reporter with Politico.com and Washington City Paper. He won the 2007 AltWeekly Award for best long-form news- story and is the author of the recently published book, This Is Your Country on Drugs.

Bryan Keefer is director of product at The Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com). He is co-author of the New York Times bestseller All the President’s Spin. He was previously managing editor of Brijit.com, founding assistant managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review’s Campaign Desk, and co-founder of political spin-busting site Spinsanity.com.

Madeleine Begun Kane, the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Humor Award winner, is a New York City- based humor columnist, recovering lawyer and musician whose columns, political song parodies and satirical poems have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, websites, and anthologies. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists honored her work as a humor columnist in 1996. Her personal humor site, http://www.madkane.com has garnered awards from USA Today, Shift Magazine, Maxim Magazine, and About.com’s Political Dot-Comedy Award for Best Parody.

Mike Madden is Salon’s Washington correspondent, covering politics and government. Madden lives in Washington, D.C.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Judge Comments & Bios Page 40 Markos Moulitsas is the founder of the Daily Kos Web site. In addition to running Kos Media LLC, which publishes Daily Kos, Moulitsas is also founder of the SB Nation network of sports blogs and cofounder of Vaster Books. He is coauthor of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics. He is a regular contributor to Newsweek. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbes’ Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World’s list of the Most Important People on the Web.

Lila Pearl Shapiro is an associate editor at Talking Points Memo. She edits TPM Cafe and develops and executes special projects throughout the sites. She began her journalism career as a production intern at PBS working on Bill Moyers’ Buying the War. She lives in New York City.

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To nominate yourself or someone else as a judge for future contests, please contact Jason Zaragoza at contests [at] aan (dot) org. Nominees should be accomplished journalists in the area they’ll be judging and should value the editorial goals of alternative newsweeklies.

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