The 2004 Utne Independent Press Awards

UPDATE: Visit the nominees and winners of the 2009 Utne Independent Press Awards.

Each issue of Utne is a verbal collage, an assemblage of ideas and articles we’ve found in the publications that arrive here by the dozen every day. We published our nominees for this year’s favorites in our last issue. The winners appear below. Some are perennial favorites; others are new finds. All are brimming with the creative energy and freedom of thought that make them this year’s best of the independent press. —The Editors

The Winners

The 16th annual roster of the best, liveliest, wisest, most provocative periodicals we’ve seen in the past year

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: MAGAZINES
Orion
This gorgeous bimonthly journal of nature and political thought can be counted on to provide some of America’s most eloquent and impassioned essays in defense of the environment and social change. $35/yr. (6 issues) from 187 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230; www.oriononline.org.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: NEWSLETTERS
Church and State
In an era when the president believes God speaks to him directly, the Washington-based monthly newsletter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State has never been more apropos. $18/yr. (11 issues) from 518 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002; www.au.org.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: ZINES
Moonlight Chronicles
From his subterranean hobbit house in rural eastern Oregon, cemetery caretaker Dan Price muses about the meaning of life, expressing himself via drawings, thoughtful journal entries, and excerpts gleaned from his esoteric reading. $5 (one copy) from Box 109, Joseph, OR 97846; www.moonlight-chronicles.com.

BEST NEW TITLE
The Walrus
To call The Walrus Toronto’s answer to Harper’s is to put it in fine company, but doesn’t quite convey what makes it so good in its own right. Smart, literary, and quintessentially Canadian, this quasi-monthly is a flash of brilliance from the city with the hottest magazine scene in the hemisphere. $39.75/yr. (10 issues) from 19 Duncan St., Suite 101, Toronto, ON M5H 3H1; www.walrusmagazine.com.