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The 1999 Winners

By The Editors, Utne Reader

| January/February 2000

For 11 years UTNE READER has recognized excellence in alternative and independent magazine publishing through its Alternative Press Awards. The Awards are a distinction made by our staff to celebrate the seldom recognized efforts of the alternative press, and as a service to our readers who want to know about alternatives to mass media magazine publishing. These awards honor individual publications that especially impressed our editorial staff during the previous year. The awards are not the result of a competition; they emerge from the extensive reading our staff does as part of the process of producing UTNE READER. Our editors read many hundreds of alternative and independent titles looking for articles and ideas that are interesting, timely, well-written, and thought-provoking.

Go --> 1999 nominees | 1998 | 1997 | 1996

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: MAGAZINES
The Oxford American
Combining fiction, essays, and poetry with often provocative journalism, The Oxford American, a bimonthly from Oxford, Mississippi, is the most intelligent voice on Southern life published in America today. US $19.95/yr. (6 issues)
Orders to: The Oxford American
P.O. Box 1156
Oxford, MS 38655
Or, by phone: 1-800-269-6926

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: NEWSWEEKLIES
L.A. Weekly
www.laweekly.com Consistently delving deeper than most urban tabloids, L.A. Weekly mixes gritty local reporting with great art and cultural coverage, making it the perfect paper of record for a city as creative (and libidinous) as it is diverse. Orders by phone only: (In CA) 1-800-4050-2123 or (out of CA) 818-545-0396

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: NEWSLETTERS
Green Guide
www.mothers.org/greenguide A repeat winner from last year, The Green Guide, a New York monthly, continues to offer a brand of impassioned practicality that transforms nebulous environmental concern into a hope-driven, how-to guide for ecologically impeccable living. US $25/yr. for membership (12 issues)
Orders to: Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet
40 W. 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
Or, by phone: 888-ECO-INFO

BEST NEW TITLE
McSweeney’s
mcsweeneys@earthlink.net Looking for offbeat originality, wit, and verve? You’ll find it in McSweeney’s, one of the funniest (and quirkiest) literary journals anywhere left of Brooklyn. US$20/yr. (4 issues)
Orders to: McSweeney's
394A Ninth St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

REPORTING EXCELLENCE
Mother Jones
www.motherjones.com After raising hell with its investigative reporting for 25 years, San Francisco’s bimonthly Mother Jones remains a living--and lively--tribute to its rabble-rousing, union-organizing namesake. US $18/yr. Intl. $28/yr. (6 issues)
Orders to: Mother Jones
Subscription Department
P.O. Box 469024
Escondido, CA 92046
Or, order online.
Or, by phone: 1-800-438-6656.
Or, by fax: 312-427-6130
Or, by e-mail.

WRITING EXCELLENCE
The American Scholar
ajr.newslink.org Providing thoughtful commentary without academic cant, The American Scholar, a Washington-based quarterly, hits perfect pitch with its carefully crafted essays, short memoirs, and criticism. US $25/yr. (4 issues)
Orders to: The American Scholar
Phi Beta Kappa Society
1785 Massachusetts Av. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Or, by phone at 800-821-4567

ART & DESIGN EXCELLENCE
Hopscotch
www.hopscotch.org Achieving a contemporary look with compelling black-and-white photos and graphics, Hopscotch, a Hispanic culture review from Amherst College, pairs imagery and text with a grace rarely seen even in big-budget ventures, let alone in scholarly journals. US $24/yr. Intl. US$38/yr. In Canada, add 7% GST (4 issues)
Orders to: Journals Fulfillment
Duke University Press
Box 90660
Durham, NC 27708-0660
Or, order online.
Or, by phone at (US) 888-387-5765
Or, by fax at 919-688-3524 CULTURAL COVERAGE
Gadfly
www.gadfly.org
From James Dean to the I Ching and every hip roadside stop in between, Gadfly's stupendous eclecticism makes this glossy bimonthly from Charlottesville, Virginia, second only to the Library of Congress as a warehouse of American pop culture--and number one when it comes to fun reading. US $19.95/yr. (6 issues)
Orders to: Gadfly Magazine
P.O. Box 7926
Charlottesville, VA 22906-7926
Or, order online.
Or, by phone at 888-442-3359.

INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE

Transition
web-dubois.fas.
harvard.edu/transition Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Transition is a compelling quarterly collection of tough-minded yet beautifully written perspectives on international culture, shaped in part by an editorial board that includes Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Derek Walcott, and Cornel West. US $27/yr. (4 issues)
Orders to: W.E.B Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research
69 Dunster St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Or, by phone at 888-387-5687
Or, order online.

PERSONAL LIFE COVERAGE
Designer/Builder
If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of building a better school, or turning a mothballed missile silo into a dream home, the Santa Fe monthly Designer/Builder is a fascinating blueprint for a more constructive life. US $28/yr. (11 issues)
Orders to: Designer/builder
2405 Maclovia Ln.
Santa Fe, NM 87505

POLITICAL & SOCIAL ISSUES
The American Prospect
epn.org/prospect.html A Boston bimonthly that lifts political writing out of the mire of Washington gossip and scandal, The American Prospect offers instead a practical vision of public life and policy shaped by "the liberal imagination." US $29.95/yr. Canada $44.95/yr. Intl. $49.95/yr. (22 issues)
Orders to: The American Prospect
5 Broad St.
Boston, MA 12109
Or, order online.
Or, by phone at 888-MUST-READ

SCIENCE & THE ENVIRONMENT
The Sciences
www.nyas.org Renowned for its lucid essays and gorgeous art, The Sciences, published bimonthly by the New York Academy of Sciences, is one of the few places where the scientific mind can be found thinking aloud with writerly grace. US $28/yr. Intl. US$28/yr. (6 issues)
Orders to: Publications, New York Academy of Sciences
2 East 63rd Street
New York, NY 10021
Or, order online.
Or, by phone: 800-843-6927 or
212-838-0230, ext. 341 or 342
Or, by fax at 212-888-2894
Or, via e-mail.

SPIRITUAL COVERAGE
re:generation quarterly
www.regenerator.com From its home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, re:generation quarterly offers its readers a thoughtful, open-minded source of cultural criticism, much of it sharing a basic belief that Christian communities "in many forms" can be engines of positive change. US $19.95/yr. (4 issues)
Orders to: re:regeneration quarterly
P.O. Box 381042
Cambridge, MA 02238-1042
Or, by phone at 800-783-4903

PRESS RELEASE

Compiled by the editors of Utne Reader.

Research by Phil Bilodeau and Lucy Bassett.