Jackson Free Press

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced Friday at its national convention in San Diego that the Jackson Free Press has won two first-place writing awards and one second. Only one newspaper, the L.A. Weekly, won more first-place awards than the Free Press.

Ayana Taylor, who is in San Diego and accepted all the awards, won first place for news writing/short form for three news stories written in 2004—one about a boycott of the Mississippi State Fair due to Richard Barrett's planned tribute to Edgar Ray Killen; another about the myths behind voting ID legislation in the state Legislature; and the third about John Kerry's visit to Tougaloo, and how the other media twisted the talk. Donna Ladd took first place in feature writing for her piece about the Morrison family, who are suing the Catholic Diocese for covering up sexual abuse by priests. Jesse Yancy won second place in food writing for three delightful odes to food—about making (or taking) stock, artichoke virgins and grabbling for catfish.

AAN also announced that the JFP was one of only four alternatives, both under and over 50,000 circulation, that won two first-place awards, along with Folio Weekly of Jacksonville, Fla., the Chicago Reader and the Orlando Weekly.

In 2004, the Jackson Free Press won two AAN writing awards in its first year of membership. This year's awards brings the JFP's AAN award tally to five awards in two years of membership. You can view an AAN roster of past winners here, although as of today it has not been updated to reflect this year's awards.

The AAN awards competition is highly competitive, with 1,325 total entries submitted this year. According to the AAN Web site:

"The Alternative Newsweekly Awards honor superior journalism and graphic design among alternative newsweeklies across the United States and Canada. The contest seeks to promote excellence by recognizing work that is well written, incisively reported and original, and that presents an effective challenge to established orthodoxies in a manner consistent with the mission of alternative newspaper journalism."

Needless to say, we are very proud of our writers' accomplishments. In addition, Jen Sorenson—a cartoonist in Virginia who recently joined the JFP's cartoon roster with her fresh and incisive strip "Slowpoke"—also won first place in cartoons in the under-five publications category. The JFP is thrilled to have recognized the talent of Sorenson so early in her alt-cartooning career.

Previous Comments

ID

171131

Comment

Congratulations--you folks rock! Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-06-18T21:04:54-06:00

ID

171132

Comment

Good. Way to go Ayana, Donna, and all. Go Tougaloo, too.

Author

Ray Carter

Date

2005-06-20T09:38:46-06:00

ID

171133

Comment

Congratulations, guys! Had I known Ayana was going to San Diego, I would've given my right arm to go. I used to live out there and I miss it.

Author

golden eagle '97

Date

2005-06-20T17:11:09-06:00

ID

171134

Comment

congrats to the state's best paper and some of this town's finest citizens!

Author

jp!

Date

2005-06-21T19:33:51-06:00

ID

171135

Comment

AAN just put out the list of judges for the awards announced last week. I must say, we're pleased to see who liked what we do. For instance, in the food category (Jesse placed second), Mollie Katzen of Moosewood cookbook fame, as well as the editor of New York Times Magazine, were two of the judges!

Author

ladd

Date

2005-06-22T16:52:22-06:00