Pióro

When I started this guide, I knew I wouldn’t be able to give all the categories the attention they deserve. I don’t think I could have done it even if I had started when all the nominations were announced at the beginning of May. But, in an effort wrap this thing up with a big [...]

In magazines, the writers write, the editors edit, the art directors do stuff with pictures and keep editors from going crazy with too many words, and the circulators…circulate? Whatever they do, it is a dark and mysterious art whose importance I don’t question. I just don’t understand it. As a special treat, below is [...]

Purpose To find the most likely winner in the science, technology and environment category.
Hypothesis The odds favour powerhouses, such as The Walrus, Maclean’s and Report on Business. Award-magnet explore is also a strong specimen.
Materials 10 Canadian magazine articles:

explore, “The Amazing Survivorbear” [.pdf of article] by J.B. MacKinnon
L’actualité, “Gentilly: la centrale de tous les soupçons” by Valérie [...]

In the investigative reporting category, writers get all Woodward and Bernstein, which can mean playing the Access to Information Act–game, interviewing scores of people or getting shot at.
Alison Motluk’s examination of the cluster fudge that lead to Stephen Harper pulling the plug on Canada’s production of medical isotopes (“A Political Meltdown,” The Walrus) is more [...]

This category is explore versus explore (versus explore versus explore) and friends. First let’s see what happens if we let the explore nominees duke it out.
“The Big Blue” [.pdf of story] is the only true adventure story in this category. Writer Charles Wilkins and 15 others paddle across the Atlantic in a tale of physical [...]

No piece of writing has made me laugh more than the Scholastic Books adaption of Spaceballs. I remember reading it on a family camping trip and doing my best to muffle my snorts and snickers as everyone was sleeping in our small tent trailer. Ultimately, I’m told, I did a bad job of muffling.
For my [...]

You have to be kidding me. Cottage Life drops a Canadiana bomb with “A Happy Makeshift Vision” [.pdf of story], in which famous Canadian poet George Bowering writes about famous Canadian poet Al Purdy and his old A-frame abode in Prince Edward County. The story has the vibe of a Purdy poem. Give it the award.
OK. [...]

This category should really be called the “Gerald Hannon gets an award” category. Now let’s see…Yup. There’s his story on James Loney, who was held captive in Baghdad for 118 days. Well, there you have it. Sorry, all the other nominees.

I must come clean: I am  the managing editor of Canadian Home Workshop magazine. It says “Canada’s do-it-yourself magazine” right on the cover of each issue that goes out. Do-it-yourself magazine, people! The magazine tells you how to do things. It should effin’ pwn this freakin’ category but—
Pardon me. I’m sorry for that outburst. You [...]

Before I look at the nominees for the sports category, I must discuss a recent event that may or may not be influencing my judgement. I am writing this not long after Ryder Hesjedal, the Canadian pro cyclist, made history by becoming the first Canuck to win the Giro d’Italia…hell, the first Canadian to win [...]