As usual, AAN members are well-represented in the list of finalists for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, which recognize excellence in food writing. The L.A. Weekly's Jonathan Gold and Westword's Jason Sheehan (who is now at Seattle Weekly) are both nominated for the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews, and Gold is also a finalist in the Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer category. Elsewhere, the Newspaper Feature Writing category is comprised only of AAN members, with two Chicago Reader pieces and one from the Village Voice vying for the top prize. Westword nabs another finalist in the Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs, where it is joined as a finalist by Washington City Paper. And last, but certainly not least, the Houston Press is a finalist in the Multimedia Food Feature category. Winners will be announced on May 2.
The International Association of Culinary Professionals has announced the finalists for this year's Bert Greene Awards, which honor "one of the most sophisticated and dynamic genres in contemporary journalism" -- food writing. This year, both the Houston Press and SF Weekly are finalists in the brand-new Blog category, and the Village Voice's Sarah Digregorio is a finalist in the Culinary Writing without Recipes category for her February 2009 piece on foie gras. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Portland on April 22.
In a short blog post on the new Nation Investigative Fund website, Joe Conason says Paul Knight's 2009 story on problems with the Toyota Prius is just the latest example of alt-weeklies -- "those hippie outposts of the old print media" -- "provid[ing] an important outlet for investigative stories that are far ahead of their mainstream competitors." While Conason is certainly right about alts often getting a head start on big stories like the Prius problems, he is wrong about one thing: The story in question originated in the Houston Press, where Knight is a staff reporter. It was reprinted in the OC Weekly and a few other VVM papers.
As Toyota acknowledges design problems with the brakes in its hybrid Prius, it's worth taking a look back at Paul Knight's April 2009 story that ran in the Houston Press and several other alt-weeklies, which details the car's "unintended acceleration" problems. "Toyota spokespeople quoted in the story blamed misinstalled floor mats and simple driver error for the wild rides," reports the OC Weekly, which also ran the story. "But now that the U.S. and Japanese governments are applying heat, the world's largest carmaker seems to be taking Prius horror stories more seriously."
"For nearly ten years now, I have done my job incognito," Robb Walsh writes. "Now I am joining the ranks of no-longer-anonymous restaurant critics." He notes that fellow VVM food writers Jason Sheehan (Westword) and Jonathan Gold (L.A. Weekly) have had few problems since moving away from the time-honored tradition of being an anonymous food critic. "[I've] noticed absolutely no difference in being recognized in restaurants," Gold says. "None. Zero."
"If you are wondering why I am so quiet lately its because I have been quarantined with N1H1," Robb Walsh tweeted last week. But being stuck in his house under doctor's orders didn't stop him from doing his job, he tells Washington City Paper. "There was no change in diet at all. I didn’t even have to stop writing," he says of his quarantine, which ended this Tuesday. "I just reviewed take out food." (Walsh further explains the process in a blog post titled "How to Review a Restaurant When You're Quarantined.")
AAN News has just received a copy of Da Capo's Best Food Writing 2009, and it is chock full of alt-weekly talent. Included in the collection are stories from City Pages' Rachel Hutton ("Spam: It's Not Just for Inboxes Anymore"), New Times Broward-Palm Beach's John Linn ("Highway to Hog Heaven"), SF Weekly's Peter Jamison ("Out of the Wild"), The Stranger's Bethany Jean Clement ("The Beauty of the Beast"), Washington City Paper's Tim Carman ("How Not to Hire a Chef"), and Westword's Jason Sheehan ("The Last of the Great $10 Steaks"). The book also includes a selection from Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh's book on oysters, and is slated to be released this fall.
Yesterday, we noted that L.A. Weekly music editor Randall Roberts had been named one of the six journalists to receive a 2009 USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship. However, we neglected to note that Houston Press contributor Kelly Klaasmeyer will also be in the 2009 class of fellows when the three-week program begins this November. We apologize for the omission.
Tony Diaz, who hosts KPFT's Nuestra Palabra program in Houston, says that the Houston Press' decision to publish Gustavo Arellano's syndicated column only on the web is like putting it "in the back of the bus." Diaz also says the Press doesn't understand how popular the column is among Hispanics, insinuating the alt-weekly is out-of-touch with that community -- an insinuation that editor Margaret Downing is having none of. "While I certainly understand the disappointment of some of our readers, to say that not carrying the column in print shows a lack of commitment to the Hispanic community is nothing but hyperbole," she says in a statement explaining the move.
The Houston Press and Fort Worth Weekly were the big winners in this year's awards competition sponsored by the Houston Press Club. The Press won a total of 16 awards. In the big papers division, it finished first for Business Story and General Commentary/Criticism, while staff writer Craig Malisow was named Print Journalist of the Year (his colleague Chris Vogel was runner-up.) In the art and web divisions open to all papers, the Press took home first-place awards for Feature Story, Hard News Reporting, Photo Package and Sports Photo. The Weekly, competing in the small papers division, won a total of 11 awards, including first-place finishes in Feature Story, Investigative Reporting, Politics/Government, Sports Story and Business Story (which it swept). Also in the large division, the Dallas Observer won four awards, including firsts for Feature Story, Sports Story; in the small division, San Antonio Current took home three awards.
