Every year the Association of Alternative Newsmedia gathers to honor the best work of its nearly 100 member publications with origins or tradition in what used to be called alternative weeklies. This year’s AAN Awards celebration of the best of the alt press was held virtually on Zoom. The Reader did well, bringing home seven awards and an honorable mention in seven categories.
As we celebrate, we’ll also take the opportunity to call your attention to this award-winning work from the past year—some of which you might have missed.
Senior writer Maya Dukmasova, edited by Sujay Kumar, won both first and third place in the Feature Story category:
“Pangea has taken thousands to eviction court. The story of an apartment empire” (first place)
“Fear and loathing at a South Shore Co-op (third place)
Mari Cohen, edited by Sujay Kumar, won first place for the Long-form News Story with “The big house and the picket fence.”
Senior writer Leor Galil, edited by Philip Montoro, won first place for Music Writing for three features:
“Lithuanian art-rock genius Vyto B resurfaces with a cross-generational collaboration”
“Marcus Mixx has lost his home, but he still has house”
“Rapbrarian Roy Kinsey finds his voice in queer hip-hop”
Senior writer Mike Sula, edited by Kate Schmidt, won third place for Food Writing on the basis of three reviews:
“El Sabor Poblano smells like home”
“Cambodia on a bun”
“Lola’s Coney Island stands for Detroit”
The Reader won third place in the Innovation/Format Buster category with “Aldermania! The Board Game” (PDF) by Aimee Levitt, Ben Joravsky, Sue Kwong, David Alvarado
Best of Chicago 2019 won first place in the Special Section category thanks to all the hard work by many people, including Jamie Ramsay, Sue Kwong, Lisa Predko, Brian Gladkowski, Karen Hawkins, Sujay Kumar, Leor Galil, Jamie Ludwig, Catey Sullivan, Maya Dukmasova, Kate Schmidt, Mike Sula, Salem Collo-Julin, Kerry Reid, and Deanna Isaacs.
Finally, “The Block Beat” collaboration series with The TRiiBE received an honorable mention for Multimedia on the basis of four installments:
“Lucy Stoole: a good look for Chicago”
“Omen gets back in the game”
“The return of Katie Got Bandz”
“Sheila Rashid makes possibilities you can wear”
The full list of this year’s award winners and honorees is on the aan.org site with links.
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