D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May 2010
Winning Attitude
"The biggest little paper in the Southwest" takes home four regional journalism awards. Plus your chance to win our writing contest.
As anyone who listens to Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" knows, folks from the Midwest — especially us Scandinavians — are loathe to brag. This reticence goes beyond words: We're always looking to see if we know somebody in any passing car, in which case we're obligated to wave — lest they think we think we're better than them. Heaven forbid.
But this month I have to set aside my native Midwestern-Scandinavian shyness about boasting and brag just a bit. The results are in, you see, from the annual "Top of the Rockies" awards honoring the best work by members of the Society of Professional Journalists in Region 9, encompassing New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. And, in Desert Exposure's first year entering this prestigious competition, which attracted a record number of entries — well, not to sound immodest, but we cleaned up.
Desert Exposure won four awards in our circulation category, two first and two second places, the only southwest New Mexico publication to win. Among all New Mexico publications, in fact, we placed second in total awards only to the Albuquerque Journal. The Journal, the Santa Fe New Mexican, blogger David Brown and Desert Exposure were the only Land of Enchantment entrants to take home first-place honors.
All four winning Desert Exposure entries were, ahem, written by yours truly. We won first place for Investigative / Enterprise Reporting for "Scout's Honor" (December 2008 — the contest spanned September 2008-August 2009), about the bitter battle over a proposed Boy Scout camp in Kingston. The judges commented, "This entry was well done and thorough. David spent time getting the different sides to an obviously frustrating and intense fight." We also took first in Political Reporting for our look at New Mexico's culture of official corruption, "Pirates of the Roundhouse" (March 2009), about which the judges said, "Strong piece of political watchdog reporting chronicling the cost of New Mexico's lax government ethics rules. Fryxell is a thorough reporter and entertaining writer."
A selection of these Editor's Notebook columns earned second place in the Editorials category, and a sampling of Continental Divide columns took second in the Personal Columns category.
It's no false modesty to say that our honors owe much to the loyalty of Desert Exposure readers and the extraordinary support of our advertisers. Thanks to you, after all, we're able to devote the space required to examine important issues in-depth. That "Scout's Honor" investigation ran to more than 4,500 words, and our investigation of the state's "buccaneer political culture" topped 4,700 words. It's tough to think of many places in today's economically pinched world of print journalism where a writer can explore serious issues at such length. Let's see, there's the New York Times Sunday Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly and er In a publishing universe dominated by articles about "Brangelina" brief enough to be read during a potty break, Desert Exposure enjoys the rare luxury of engaging in serious journalism at lengths adequate to tell all sides of a story.
In this very issue, in fact, we devote more than 5,000 words to the troubling question of the future of the nation less than 100 miles to our south. Can Mexico win its war against drug lords, or will "narco-terrorism" plunge portions of that country into complete chaos? And what does the threat of Mexico becoming a "failed state" mean to those of us who live right next door? Such questions gained a tragic urgency last month with the murder of southeastern Arizona rancher Robert Krentz.
This issue also brings your annual opportunity to show off your own winning writing skills: the 2010 Desert Exposure writing contest, where we invite our readers to try their hand at being writers. Send us your stories, essays, articles and poems; pretty much anything goes — including fiction — as long as the writing in some way evokes life in Southwest New Mexico. There's no limit to the number of entries you can submit. And, as we were just saying, length is flexible (though as a practical matter we wouldn't have room for any winning entry longer than, say, 6,000 words). The contest is open to all, veteran authors and novice scribblers alike. Unlike most writing contests, there's no entry fee.
The deadline for entries is July 19, giving us time to examine the entries and select a grand-prize winner plus four runner-ups to publish in the September issue. The grand prize comes with a $100 award, and each runner-up wins $25.
To enter, send your submission(s) to Desert Exposure Writing Contest, PO Box 191, Silver City, NM 88062. You can also email your entries — either as an attached Word, RTF or plain text (TXT) file, or simply copied and pasted into the body of an email — to contest@desertexposure.com Be sure to include your name and complete contact information including postal address so we can give you the good news and send your check if you win. Keep a copy of your entry, as submissions cannot be returned.
Even if you don't win, we'll consider your entry for possible future publication in Desert Exposure at our usual rates.
In any case, winners are allowed to brag all you want about your literary triumph. Just don't tell Garrison Keillor.
David A. Fryxell is editor of Desert Exposure.