Throughout his career, Ben Joravsky has worked to illuminate issues affecting Chicagoans. In his award-winning political column for the Chicago Reader, The Works, he explains how the city treats certain individuals, shedding light on the larger schemes of government. This is the 27th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
Rene Spencer Saller began writing music reviews for a fanzine when she was in her mid teens and has since made her way in a field that seems to be dominated by "white guys." She can admire a band and still take it to task for its misogyny. Her award-winning column, Sound Patrol, appears in Illinois Times. This is the 26th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
Derf (aka John Backderf) gets ideas for his cartoon through cultural osmosis. As he wanders around the city, he stumbles across all kinds of material. His award-winning cartoon, The City, is carried by alternative weeklies across the country. This is the 25th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
With his award-winning arts criticism in Madison's Isthmus, Kent Williams makes the case for the local critic: someone who will see The Passion of the Christ the way the community sees it, who will marvel at the complexity of the pipe organ in the local symphony hall, and who will notice the naked sculpture at the local museum that people have walked past all these years without ever really understanding her. This is the 24th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
You never know where a search engine will lead you. For Terje Langeland, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Independent, it was straight into a web of connections among local people who had backed pro-voucher candidates for the school board and national pro-voucher groups. His award-winning series, "Command Performance," lays out the details. This is the 23rd in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
The online registration system first implemented for the 2005 AltWeekly Awards contest is back -- with some improvements. A new category! An earlier deadline! Different ways to submit! Learn more about the changes here.
Writing film criticism for an alt-weekly in an area with a highly educated population allows Godfrey Cheshire to write without dumbing down his work. His three award-winning reviews for The Independent Weekly analyze films created by an American, a Russian and an Iranian. This is the 22nd in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
When he covered media for the Dallas Observer, Eric Celeste wanted to do more than deliver "bee stings" to the local daily. He wanted to delve into the paper's inner workings. His award-winning article, "At the Ripping Point," examined a newspaper consulting company's role in the decline of The Dallas Morning News. This is the 21st in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
When Steve Billings thought about what kind of food reviewer he wanted to be, he knew one thing. He didn't want to write dish-by-dish accounts of dining out. Instead, in his award-winning column for Metro Santa Cruz, he writes of the philosophy behind making sauerkraut, the goals of an organic farmer and other topical subjects. This is the 19th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
One of the secret weapons in Betty Brink's reporting arsenal is the way she looks. Because she cuts a grandmotherly figure, people can't help but confide in her. The reporter who started out at an underground paper in college now does award-winning news reporting for Fort Worth Weekly. This is the 17th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
