Portfolio: Award-Winners

Here’s a compilation of my award-winning work, written while at the St. Petersburg Times from 2003 to 2008:

• Society of Professional Journalists 2008 Sunshine State Awards (Florida, statewide), 2nd place – Criticism
  • A review of the 2007 Vans Warped Tour.
  • A review of Radiohead’s In Rainbows.

• SPJ 2007 Green Eyeshade Awards (11 Southeastern states), 3rd place – Best Blog
  • The lost days of gaming past
  • Why Virtua Fighter is like Magic: the Gathering
  • Why I’m not in love with Zelda: Twilight Princess

• Florida SPJ 2007 Awards of Excellence (Florida, statewide but not as well-established as Sunshine State Awards), 1st place (over 100,000 circulation) – Arts/Entertainment Writing
  • A review of the video game Prey.
  • A review of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell III.
  • Same review of Vans Warped Tour as above.

• Florida SPJ 2007 Awards of Excellence, 1st place (under 100,000 circulation) – Arts/Entertainment Writing
  • A column about Weird Al Yankovic’s influence.
  • A review of the video game Okami.
  • A column about Wii Sports, real sports, and notions of competition.

• SPJ 2006 Green Eyeshade Awards, 1st place – Online Commentary/Blogs
  • Video games as art, Prelude: Why Roger Ebert is right
  • Video games as art, Part I: The auteur problem
  • Video games as art, Part II: Gamers aren’t Michael Chabon
  • Video games as art, Part III: Some narratives are more equal than others
  • Video games as art, Part IV: Respecting games as games

• Florida SPJ 2006 Awards of Excellence, 1st place (over 100,000 circulation) – Arts/Entertainment Writing
  • A review of the original Guitar Hero.
  • A review/essay about The Long Tail.
  • A review of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium.

• Florida SPJ 2007 Awards of Excellence, 1st place (under 100,000 circulation) – Arts/Entertainment Writing
  • A column about Pearl Jam’s casually lasting relevance.
  • A column about why Rolling Stone still matters (on the occasion of the magazine’s 1000th issue).
  • A column about Stephen Colbert’s performance at the 2006 White House correspondents dinner.

• SPJ 2006 Sunshine State Awards, 2nd place – Headline Writing
  • “Meet the on-again, off-again planet”
  • “Her grim dues paid, group says no to mom“
  • “1 plus 1 equals yum“
  • “The new library: from shhhh! to ahhhh”
  • “Hooters made him millions, and IRS wants four of them back”