We’re very pleased to announce that the Bohemian has been awarded first- or second-place Better Newspaper Contest prizes for three stories we published last year, by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, a statewide press association based in Sacramento. Arts Editor Charlie Swanson’s cover story, “Music on the Margins,” was a great feature on local iconoclast-musician John Trubee, author of the legendary non-hit-single “Blind Man’s Penis.” Swanson’s feature is a Best Writing winner, either first or second place. Go, Charlie!
Elsewhere, News Editor Tom Gogola took either first or second place for two stories from 2015: his “Land of the Lawson’s” from last July detailed the goings-on at Lawson’s Landing coastal campground in northernmost Marin County. That story is up for the Environmental Reporting award. And Gogola’s “Short Term Solution” took either first or second place in the Coverage of Business News category. That story took a look at the real estate lobby’s interactions with an AirBnB-related bill offered by Healdsburg state senator Mike McGuire.
We’re also happy to announce that freelance feature writer’s Will Parrish’s “Coho Vs. Pinot” took either third- or fourth-place Blue Ribbon in the Environmental Reporting category, no disgrace there—that was an epic story. We’d also like to give a big shout-out to Pacific Sun editor Molly Oleson, our colleague in Marin County, whose feature on veterans suffering with PTSD and their use of Buddhism to move on from their war wounds, “Finding Refuge,” was also a third- or fourth-place Blue Ribbon winner. The awards ceremonies are at the end of April in Sacramento. We’ll let readers know how we did, with our sincere thanks for reading these darn stories that we write.
