Straight writers nominated for magazine awards

The Georgia Straight has won award nominations in three categories for the 31st annual Western Magazine Awards, the WMA Foundation announced today (May 2).

Straight contributor Alex Roslin got the nod in the environmental category for his July 2012 cover feature "Japan’s irradiated fish worry B.C. experts", a story about elevated radiation levels in Pacific Ocean–caught fish more than a year after the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster in March 2011.

Roslin’s article also received a nomination for this year’s Canadian Association of Journalists outstanding investigative journalism award (to be awarded May 4).

Long-time Straight contributor Daniel Wood is nominated in the public-issues category for his June 2012 cover feature "Sullivanism vs. Jane Jacobs", a look at former Vancouver mayor (and provincial Liberal hopeful) Sam Sullivan’s changed views on urban-density issues, especially how they now countered those held by legendary urban-planning visionary Jane Jacobs, whose theories Sullivan formerly supported.

In the category of gold award for best article in B.C. / Yukon, Laura Robinson is up against four others with her September 2012 news feature about former Vanoc head John Furlong, "Furlong bio omits secret past in Burns Lake".

The WMAF also announced that its lifetime-achievement award this year is going to a couple ("for the first time, and perhaps never to be repeated"), Paul and Audrey Grescoe of Bowen Island. Between them, the Grescoes have decades of experience as journalists, editors, book authors, magazine owners and writers, and publishers.

The Western Magazine Awards winners will be announced at the foundation's reception and awards gala on Friday, June 21, at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.