The Walrus wins at the Utne Press Awards
May 19th, 2009 by Paul Isaacs | Comment »
The Walrus has won the 2009 Utne Independent Press Award for Best Writing.
The awards, presented by the Utne Reader, were given out last night at the Independent Magazine Conference in Boulder, Colorado. ”The goal is to honor independently minded publications that don’t shy away from tough stories and innovative ideas,” the magazine explained.
The editors said:
“It is, once again, the year of The Walrus. Since launching in 2003, the Canadian general-interest magazine “with an international outlook” has nabbed three Utne Independent Press Award nominations, taking the prize in 2004 for best new publication. Five years later and counting, it’s been consistently delightful to read—and last year the magazine outdid itself, its sparkling articles and fluid essays orbiting high above the rest of us earthbound publications.
“As a digest charged with reprinting “the best of the alternative press,” we were exceptionally grateful to have it at our disposal. We culled Moira Farr’s exquisite “Minor Keys” about the emotional power of music and Charles Montgomery’s droll and heartwarming “Me Want More Square Footage.” All year long, the magazine’s Field Notes bulged with unpredictable global vignettes, from a visit to Somaliland’s only mental hospital to the history of Paraguay’s 100-year-old colony of Germans.
“Walrus writers have a knack for telling personal stories and infusing them with contemporary meaning, giving its global news a beating, human heart. In “The First Little Mosque on the Prairie,” for example, a family saga gives way to the history of Islam in Canada. “Fat of the Land” whisks readers along on a trip to Borneo, unraveling the human and environmental consequences of the trans fat ban. Pick up the Walrus and you will read about things you never knew existed; you will be delighted, challenged, and, above all, sated.”
Other magazines nominated in the Best Writing category included the Columbia Journalism Review, the New Republic, the Texas Observer, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Read more at the Utne Press website.
