Journal earns six honours for feature journalism
Some 800 entries competed for awards across U.S. and Canada
The Edmonton Journal has picked up six honours at this year’s Society for Features Journalism Awards, which were announced Tuesday.
Jodie Sinnema won two awards, including a firstplace finish in the Short Feature category for an offbeat story about people who don’t use shampoo on their hair, and a second-place finish in the General Feature category for a profile of a northern Alberta fur trapper.
Theatre writer Liz Nicholls was honoured twice this year as well. She and music writer Sandra Sperounes won an honourable mention in the Series or Project category for a feature that delved into Edmonton’s music and theatre venues — which are bad, which are good and if the city needs more.
Nicholls also won an honourable mention in the Arts & Entertainment Feature category for a story about the return of the clowns of horror, Mump and Smoot.
Columnist Paula Simons won an honourable mention in the General Commentary category for a portfolio of work, including two hardhitting columns — one on the legacy of Holocaust denier Jim Keegstra and the second on vandalism at a Cold Lake mosque — and a third column offering a whimsical look at Christmas and Hanukkah candles.
The Journal was also one of three winners of the SFJ’s Best Sections contest among newspapers of a comparable size. The judges described the Journal’s entries as “classic literary style meets exceptionally strong visuals. The sections are solid and contain great reads.”
The Journal entry contained a portfolio of work in various sections: An Insight section featuring the music and theatre venue project honoured above; another Insight section featuring the dark history of suicides off the High Level Bridge; an Arts section featuring a story on jukebox musicals; a Food section with a feature on food photography; and a Style section with stories on a Muslim wedding and brightly painted houses.
“These awards reflect the incredible variety of highquality journalism our newsroom produces every day, from investigations into serious issues like suicide, to analyses of our local arts scene, to lighthearted fashion features,” said Journal managing editor Stephanie Coombs.
“We have been lucky to be recognized by the SFJ for several years in a row, and I’m so pleased we are recognized again this year.”
More than 800 entries were judged in the contest, which honours the craft of feature storytelling at news organizations in the United States and Canada. Winners will be recognized at SFJ’s conference Aug. 26-29 in Maryland.