Creative Loafing keeps hunting during awards season

Kudos keep coming for Creative Loafing folks both past and present. While we were still basking in the glow of Food Editor Besha Rodell’s impressive nomination from the James Beard Foundation for her work on last year’s Food Issue — and good luck to her this weekend at the ceremonies in New York City! — we were thrilled with still more honors this week.On Thursday night, Senior Writer Mara Shalhoup was named “Journalist of the Year” by the Atlanta Press Club — going up against all forms of media (print, broadcast, online, you name it). This comes after two previous nominations (2003 and ’04), but last year’s three-part series on the Black Mafia Family put her over the top. Shalhoup’s BMF package included loads of online extras that helped earn it

an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies nomination for Web Content Feature.

This also comes three days after Shalhoup was named one of 61 finalists for the 2006 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. (Shalhoup’s also one of only seven nominated from the alt-weekly world.) The awards honor accomplishments of journalists under 35 years of age.

Shalhoup’s in heady company, considering some of the other nominees, including Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor; Carroll was kidnapped and later released in Iraq during her freelance coverage for the paper. Other nominees came from the New York Times, Salon.com, Harper’s Magazine, the New Republic and National Public Radio. The Livingstons will dole out $10,000 awards to winners in three categories: Local, National and International Reporting. The winners will be announced June 5. We’re cheering Mara on if for no other reason than we need someone to buy the next round.

On Thursday, Creative Loafing scored two nominations in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ competition in the category for papers with a circulation above 60,000. (We kick out 125,000 each week.) Graphic designers Katie Kaiser and Jane Earle were nominated for Ad Design for their work on last year’s Georgia Music Directory, which was funny timing considering our new one is out on the streets this week. Also, now-former Senior Editor Doug Monroe’s hilariously biting graphic-novel collaboration with Atlanta cartoonist Josh Latta on “The Book of Ralph” (as in Reed, everyone’s favorite Christian) earned a nomination for the Format Buster category. (We can’t think of a more fitting nomination.) Monroe currently scribbles for Atlanta magazine; his Peachtree Screed blog is a favorite among Atlanta Web surfers.

The winners will be announced at the AAN convention June 14-16 in Portland, Ore.