Skip to content

Monday writers honoured

Award season always arrives with a sense of trepidation
Grant McKenzie Brick 1

Award season always arrives with a sense of trepidation. We know it’s impossible to please every reader, but we hope that our continuing and fresh coverage of important, informative and fun topics within our community has endeared us to most of you.

We also made a number of noticeable changes to Monday in 2011, not the least of which was a complete redesign and the arrival of new editorial faces.

Reaction from you, our readers, is our oxygen, but it’s always interesting to see how our peers in the newspaper industry have reacted to this bold step of ours. Well, the first industry awards of the season have been announced, and I’m thrilled to announce that Monday has been spotlighted as a Top 3 finalist in seven categories — the most of any Island newspaper — for the B.C. & Yukon Community Newspapers Association awards.

The best part of this, however, is that six of the nominations are for writing, while the seventh is for our wonderful redesign. The diverse list of categories is also interesting as Monday writers are nominated for feature, environment, history and business stories.

Here are the official nominations:

  • Editorial Award: Code of Justice: Kimberley Proctor’s killers will face a fate worse than death by Grant McKenzie & Timothy Collins.
  • Columnist Award: Brian Kieran for Driver testing is designed to fail seniors and Campbell retains power to inspire outrage.
  • Feature Article Award: No Shame: Healing the Wounds by Danielle Pope.
  • Business Writing Award: Ugly sweaters for all by Mary Ellen Green.
  • Environmental Writing Award: Dying to stay green: Victorians are making end-of-life decisions with the same values as they lead their lives by Mary Ellen Green.
  • Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing: Remember Us: Chinese Canadian vets honour the country that cast them aside by Danielle Pope.
  • Newspaper Promotion Award: Monday Magazine Relaunch by Publisher Penny Sakamoto and the entire Monday team.

BCYCNA judges had a record 1,800 entries to review, with the monumental task of selecting the top three in each category. Our parent company, Black Press, took 76 finalist spots overall out of 132, which included 14 for General Excellence.

The winners will be announced during an awards gala on April 14 at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond. M