Meet the NMA Finalists for Best New Magazine Writer
One of the most exciting awards each year at the National Magazine Awards gala is that of Best New Magazine Writer, sponsored by Reader’s Digest Foundation. This award, including a cash prize of $500, goes to a writer whose early work in Canadian magazines shows the highest degree of craft and promise. This year, our judges have nominated three finalists, one of whom will be named Canada’s Best New Magazine Writer at the awards gala on June 7.
[INFO & TICKETS]
And the nominees are…
Chris Hampton, for “The Place Where Art Sleeps” (Maisonneuve)
Chris Hampton
Chris Hampton is completing graduate studies in journalism at Ryerson University. He has contributed to Maisonneuve, the National Post, Chart Attack, and The Huffington Post.
What the judges said about it: “In evocative and entertaining prose, Chris Hampton takes the reader on a visual journey to a cloistered world where some of art’s greatest treasures lie hidden from public view. With a keen eye for detail, he makes the underground realm of high art accessible and fascinating.”
Sierra Skye Gemma, for “The Wrong Way” (The New Quarterly)
Sierra Skye Gemma
Sierra Skye Gemma is an award-winning writer and journalist. Her story “The Wrong Way” was the winner of The New Quarterly 2012 Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. She is currently completing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
What the judges said: “With a fresh voice and a strong command of style and structure, Sierra Skye Gemma digs ever deeper into the story of a lost life, writing with both edginess and verve in this meditation on the process of grieving. A terrific example of personal exposition, her story is powerful and lasting.”
May Jeong, for “The Cult of Pastor Song” (Toronto Life)
May Jeong
May Jeong is a graduate of the University of Toronto and now is a freelance reporter who has written for The Globe and Mail, Reuters, The New York Times and Toronto Life, among others. She lives in Kabul, Afghanistan.
What the judges said: “Fearless reporting characterizes this investigative exposé from May Jeong, who gains exclusive access to multiple sources as she pieces together a controversial narrative of fraud and sexual abuse. Immersing herself in a difficult story, she shows real courage and great promise as a writer.”
Congratulations to all the nominees in Best New Magazine Writer. The winner will be revealed at the 36th annual National Magazine Awards gala on June 7 at The Carlu in Toronto. [INFO & TICKETS]
Meet the NMA Finalists for:
Art Direction for an Entire Issue
Photojournalism & Photo Essay
Announcing the Nominees for the 36th National Magazine Awards!
Today the NMAF announces the nominees for the 36th annual National Magazine Awards!
[Version française]
[PDF Nominations List]
[Tickets]
In the category Magazine of the Year the jury has selected four finalists:
Corporate Knights
Cottage Life
Uppercase
Urbania
Nominated for Tablet Magazine of the Year are Canadian House & Home (“The Colour Issue”), Maclean’s (“Canada’s Best Restaurants”) and Chez Soi (“Noël 100% déco”).
And the nominees for Magazine Website of the Year are Hazlitt, Maclean’s and Toronto Life.
The winner of the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, announced on April 30, is Stephen Trumper.
Leading all magazines with 29 nominations for this year’s National Magazine Awards is Toronto Life, followed by L’actualité (24), The Walrus (23), The Grid (22), Maclean’s and Report on Business (20 each).
Top Nominated Magazines for the 36th National Magazine Awards:
| Magazine |
Written |
Integrated |
Visual |
Special |
Total |
| Toronto Life |
19 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
29 |
| L’actualité |
20 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
24 |
| The Walrus |
15 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
23 |
| The Grid |
8 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
22 |
| Maclean’s |
17 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
20 |
| Report on Business |
13 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
20 |
| Maisonneuve |
10 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
14 |
| Cottage Life |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
| Eighteen Bridges |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
| Sportsnet |
9 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
10 |
| enRoute |
3 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
9 |
| The New Quarterly |
7 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
Magazine of the Year Finalist
Nine magazines are nominated for National Magazine Awards for the first time:
Chez Soi
Globe Style Advisor (3 nominations)
Hazlitt (4 nominations)
Infopresse
Le Must
New Trail
Nouveau Projet (2 nominations)
Ottawa Citizen Style
Write Magazine
Chris Turner leads all individual finalists with 4 nominations in written categories for his work in Canadian Geographic, Marketing and The Walrus. Garnering 3 individual nominations are Catherine Dubé (L’actualité), Dan Robson (Sportsnet), Iain Marlow (Report on Business) and Dominique Forget (ELLE Québec, Jobboom and L’actualité).
Magazine of the Year Finalist
The article “Building with the Brigadier” (Report on Business) by Greg McArthur and Graeme Smith has the distinction of being nominated in 3 categories: Business, Investigative Reporting and Politics & Public Interest.
The 10 finalists for the best Canadian Magazine Cover of 2012 come from Adbusters, Azure, Canadian Business, Maclean’s, Maisonneuve, Report on Business, The Grid, The Walrus, Up Here and Vancouver.
There are 8 finalists for the award for Best Single Issue: Cottage Life (“June 2012”), enRoute (“The Food Issue”), LE Must (“Santé alimentaire”), Maisonneuve (“Tenth Anniversary Issue”), The Feathertale Review (“Issue 9”), The Grid (“May 10”), The Walrus (“November 2012”) and Toronto Life (“The Loneliest Man in Toronto”).
The 3 finalists for Best New Magazine Writer are Chris Hampton (for “The Place Where Art Sleeps”; Maisonneuve), Sierra Skye Gemma (for “The Wrong Way”; The New Quarterly), and May Jeong (“The Cult of Pastor Song”; Toronto Life).
Magazine of the Year Finalist
In addition to the new category Tablet Magazine of the Year, for 2012 the NMAF created 2 other new categories for digital content. In the new integrated category Online Video, the 5 finalists are “Balcony Makeover” (Canadian House & Home), “Les coulisses du reportage mode Icône” (ELLE Québec), “Pagelicker 01: Irvine Welsh” (Hazlitt), “Reboot on Life” (Ottawa Citizen Style), and “Toronto’s National Anthem” (The Grid).
Of the 10 finalists in the new written category Blogs, 6 are from Maclean’s, 2 from Torontoist, and 1 each from L’actualité and Today’s Parent.
Congratulations to all the finalists!
[PDF Nominations List]
Magazine of the Year Finalist
The 36th annual National Magazine Awards Gala
Join us for the 36th annual National Magazine Awards, Friday June 7 at the fabulous Carlu in Toronto. [Tickets]
Gold and Silver awards will be handed down on June 7 in 24 written categories, 12 visual categories and 6 integrated categories. All other finalists will receive Honourable Mention. Winners will also be celebrated in 5 special categories: Outstanding Achievement, Best New Magazine Writer, Magazine Website of the Year, Tablet Magazine of the Year, and Magazine of the Year.
Gold winners in written, visual and integrated categories (except Best Single Issue) receive a cash prize of $1000; Silver winners $500. The winner of Best New Magazine Writer receives a cash prize of $500.
Credit Changes
If you are a National Magazine Award nominee, please let us know of any credit changes to your nomination no later than Thursday May 9, 2013.
Thank you!
A grand thank you to all of our judges who evaluated this year’s entries to the National Magazine Awards. From nearly 2,000 individual entries nationwide, the NMAF’s 251 volunteer judges nominated a total of 365 submissions from 87 different Canadian magazines for awards in 47 written, visual, integrated and special categories.
Acknowledgements
The National Magazine Awards Foundation acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, as well as financial support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation. The National Magazine Awards Foundation gratefully acknowledges its suppliers and its contributors who donated gifts in kind to support the awards program. We thank them for their generosity, interest and expertise.
Spotlight: The National Magazine Award for Best New Magazine Writer
Each year one of the most exciting moments at National Magazine Awards gala is discovering which hardworking young magazine journalist is named Canada’s Best New Magazine Writer.
[Version française ici]
Submissions in this category are open to students as well as young magazine writers whose early work in Canadian magazines shows the highest degree of craft and promise.
The competition is open to work published during 2012 in print, tablet or web-based Canadian magazines. Individuals may enter their own work (see the full requirements here), but editors, teachers and mentors are encouraged to nominate the talented young writers they’ve worked with.
Details:
- Entry Fee: $25
- Deadline: January 16, 2013
- Requirements: Tear sheets plus a letter of recommendation
- Finalists: A shortlist of 3 finalists will be announced May 1, 2013
- Winners: The winner will be revealed at the NMA Gala on June 7, 2013
- Prize: The winner receives a cash prize of $500, a certificate, industry recognition on stage, and promotion of their work in various NMAF publications and archive; the other two finalists will receive Honourable Mention, a certificate, various publicity, and their work will appear in the NMA archive.
- More information: Visit our website for complete submissions and award details.
- To Submit: Click here to register online.
Among last year’s three finalists, two were recent graduates of Ryerson University’s School of Journalism and the third was a young columnist for Maclean’s.
The winner was Liam Casey, whose award-winning piece “Suicide Notes” (Ryerson Review of Journalism) won over the judges with its passion and its courageous investigative reporting. Liam Casey is now a staff reporter at the Toronto Star.
“Suicide Notes” by Liam Casey in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. (Click image to read the complete article.)
The winner of this year’s National Magazine Award for Best New Magazine Writer will join a group of award laureates that includes Matthieu Aikins, Patrick White, Chantal Srivastava, Jeremy Klaszus, Jonathan Trudel, Matthew McKinnon, Danielle Groen, Jean-François Bégin, Sophie Lees, and Kris Demeanor.
Check out some of our interviews with past winners and finalists for this award:
- Off the Page, with Jeremy Klaszus
- Off the Page, with Jonathan Trudel
- Off the Page, with Carol Shaben
Read more about the award for Best New Magazine Writer. Read the full text of past finalists and winners in our archive.
Click here to submit. The submissions deadline is January 16, 2013.
Liam Casey, winner of the 2011 award for Best New Magazine Writer, accepts his award on stage at the NMA Gala.
Related posts:
Opportunities for Students at the National Magazine Awards
Attention all journalism school students, creative writers, young artists and magazine professionals: The National Magazine Awards Foundation (NMAF) has a number of initiatives and opportunities for you.
Awards: Best New Magazine Writer & Best New Visual Creator
While all NMA categories are open to work published by students and young professionals, we have two categories open exclusively to your talent, with cash prizes and recognition at the annual NMA Gala. Submissions for work published in 2012 will be accepted starting on December 1 with a deadline of January 16.
[Read more about these awards]
[Check out last year's winners]
E-Book: Best in Magazines 2007-2012
A collection of over 30 National Magazine Award-winning stories, photo essays, illustrations and covers from the past 5 years, our new eBook is available absolutely FREE for your iPad and features the best in magazine journalism from The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Explore, Eighteen Bridges, AlbertaViews, Swerve, Report on Business, The New Quarterly, Toronto Life, Ryerson Review of Journalism & many others.
[Read more]
[Download the Free App]
Internships at the NMAF
We are offering 2 paid Administrative Internship positions for students interested in pursuing a career in the Canadian magazine industry. Internships are part-time and run from December through June. The deadline for applications to this year’s internship program is November 7. [Read more]
NMA Online Archives
This summer we hosted a Reading Series featuring award-winning articles from our online archive of previous National Magazine Award winners. The reading series & archive are great opportunities to catch up on the best of the best in Canadian magazine journalism–we have full-text PDF versions of all finalists and winners from recent years–and find inspiration for your future work.
[Dive into the NMA Archive]
[Cozy up with our Summer Reading Series]
Resources & Other Awards
On our website we maintain an exhaustive list of magazine and journalism awards across Canada, and periodically on our blog we feature in depth information about these awards and contests.
[Follow the Magazine Awards blog]
[See which Magazine Writing Contests are going on now]
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for frequent updates, news and opportunities from the NMAF. If you have any questions about the National Magazine Awards, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Best regards for a successful year!
Meet the NMA Finalists for Best New Magazine Writer
We’re getting ready to celebrate the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards on June 7 at the fabulous Carlu in Toronto. Among the many great nominees this year are 3 finalists for the special award Best New Magazine Writer, which is generously sponsored by L’Oréal Canada.
This award will go to a writer whose early work in magazines (print or digital) shows the highest degree of craft and promise. The award is open to students and magazine writers with a maximum of two years’ experience in professional journalism.
Click on the images to read the full text of each of this year’s three finalists:
“The New Paparazzi” by Emma Teitel, for Maclean’s
What the judges said about Emma Teitel:
What a voice Emma Teitel has! Well researched and beautifully paced, her story of the Facebook generation is rich with personal insight. Her writing is full of bravura; authoritative and punchy. Writing a column in a national magazine is a remarkable achievement, especially for someone so young. She is clearly a natural for this style of journalism.
“Suicide Notes” by Liam Casey, for the Ryerson Review of Journalism
What the judges said about Liam Casey:
In a rare combination of eloquent personal journalism and meticulous reporting, Liam Casey has confronted a highly charged question that has been dodged for so long – the practice in newsrooms of non-reporting of suicide. With tremendous honesty he has put himself inside the story of the pain of depression, and emerged with a strong commentary on journalism. Not many writers have made such an impact with one of their first pieces.
“Not All Smurfs and Sunshine” by Matthew Scianitti, for the Ryerson Review of Journalism
What the judges said about Matthew Scianitti:
With formidable storytelling chops Matthew Scianitti brings a complicated character – Chris Jones – to life. He combines diligent reporting with an effortless prose style, and deftly mimics the style of his interview subject. He has demonstrated a strong capacity for crafting a profile. A delight to follow, his work is a telling description of a bright young writer.
The winner will be revealed June 7 at the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards. Tickets are on sale now.
Related Posts:
Meet the NMA Finalists for: Best New Visual Creator | Art Direction for an Entire Issue | Magazine Covers | Magazine of the Year–Digital | Words & Pictures | Single Service Article Package | Photojournalism & Photo Essay
** SPONSORED ADVERTISEMENT **
BELIEVING IN TOMORROW’S GENERATION
L’Oréal Canada has developed three programs in Canada under its Education Philanthropic Pillar, for grade school, high school, and university students:
1. Grade school — Actua’s National Girls Mentorship Program:
Inspiring girls in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), L’Oréal Canada and Actua’s National Girls Mentorship Program was established in 2003 as a result of a noted decrease in female participation in co-ed camps. This program is a set of specialized initiatives designed to proactively increase the engagement of girls in SET studies and careers, and to provide girls with their first opportunity to meet “real life” scientists and engineers.
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Partnering with the Montreal School Board, L’Oréal Canada’s Project Talent is now in its third year of reaching out to high school students with learning difficulties and who are at high risk of dropping out. The goal is to encourage these students to stay in school by giving the experience of learning through the arts.
3. University — L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship Program for Women in Science
L’Oréal Canada believes that the world needs science and science needs women. Today, however, women represent only 20% of scientific researches in the private sector, and in certain disciplines such as math, the number to only 12%. L’Oréal Canada annually awards fellowships to four exceptional Canadian researchers with the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO through its “For Women in Science Fellowships” Program.
These three programs enable talented young people from various backgrounds to fulfill their potential for excellence and promote equal opportunities for all Canadian youth. For more information, visit www.loreal.com.
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Why should young writers and artists enter the NMAs?
Liam Casey, winner of the 2011 award for Best New Magazine Writer, accepts his award on stage at the NMA Gala.
[This post has been updated for 2012]
Few moments at the annual National Magazine Awards gala are as satisfying as discovering which talented up-and-comers are named Canada’s Best New Magazine Writer and Best New Visual Creator. Submissions in these categories are open to students as well as young magazine writers, illustrators and photographers whose early work in Canadian magazines shows the highest degree of craft and promise.
The competition is open to work published during 2012 in either print or digital Canadian magazines. Individuals may enter their own work (see the full requirements here), but editors, art directors and teachers are encouraged to nominate the talented young writers and artists they’ve worked with, even discovered.
Here are just a few reasons we think you might want to enter:
1. It’s only $25 (plus HST) to enter these two categories; a hefty discount on the $95 entry fee for most other National Magazine Awards.
2. Students are encouraged to submit, and the awards are open to work published in college and university magazines as well as any other eligible Canadian magazine.
3. Three finalists will be announced for each award on May 1; they and their work will be promoted in NMAF publications and at the NMA gala.
4. While there is only one entry allowed per person, there is no limit to the number of submissions from a single publication.
5. The winner of each category will be announced on stage at the 36th annual National Magazine Awards gala on June 7, in a room full of Canada’s top magazine publishers, editors and art directors.
6. For each winner there is a cash prize — $500 – and the right to call yourself a National Magazine Award winner in every bio for the rest of your life!
7. The winner of each category will be recognized on stage at the gala; they and their work will be promoted in NMAF publications, press releases, promotional campaigns — anything and everything we can do to celebrate emerging creative talent in our industry.
8. The winner of Best New Magazine Writer joins a group of award laureates including Matthieu Aikins, Patrick White, Chantal Srivastava, Jeremy Klaszus, Jonathan Trudel, Matthew McKinnon, Danielle Groen, Jean-François Bégin, Sophie Lees, Kris Demeanor and Larry Frolick.
9. The winner of Best New Visual Creator joins 2011 winner The Coveteur and 2009 winner Byron Eggenschwiler, a multiple NMA winner who also designed the creative for the 33rd National Magazine Awards (left).
10. The greatness of Canadian magazines is sustained by the talented, innovative and dynamic young people who love what they do and work hard to do it. At the National Magazine Awards Foundation we, like the rest of the Canadian magazine industry, want to recognize and celebrate this. We can’t do it without you.
Read more about Best New Magazine Writer and Best New Visual Creator. The submissions deadline is January 16, 2013.
