The preliminary and final judges in the 2005 AltWeekly Awards contest generously made comments about many of the entries. Their critiques of the first-place winners will appear in the forthcoming book, Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005. The comments, which have been excerpted from the book, are also available now as a PDF document.

The AAN staff can also provide individual newspapers with summaries of comments on all of their entries, whether they were finalists or not. Contact the contest administrator and book coeditor Ruth Hammond to request your summary.

Biographies of the writers, editors, designers and others who took first place, which were excerpted from the book, can also be downloaded.

The book of award winners is now at the printer’s, with an expected publication date of early September. The 254-page book includes all 40 first-place winners, with design winners featured on a 32-page color inset. A free copy of Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005 will be mailed to each AAN newspaper, individual freelancers who placed first, the 141 contest judges, and selected book reviewers, journalism professors and libraries. Additional copies can be ordered for $19.95 each ($17.95 if ordering six or more). Details on how to order will be forthcoming.

If you want to recommend that a particular journalism professor, reviewer or library receive a copy of the awards book, contact Hammond.