AJA-nominated "A trust betrayed"
In an awesome kick-off to the weekend, yesterday the Atlantic Journalism Awards announced
the list of finalists for this year's awards, and three members of Team Coast made the cut.
Coast news editor Tim Bousquet is up for the Enterprise Reporting (in print) prize, for
"A trust betrayed: Peter Kelly and the estate of Mary Thibeault," his February 16, 2012 cover story that lead to then-mayor Kelly's retirement. Tim's competitors in this category are both from Fredericton's
Daily Gleaner: Laverne Stewart is nominated for "CFB Gagetown Military Housing," and Shawn Berry got the nod for "MLA's Pension." Since it would be uncomfortable around the
Gleanerfor either Stewart or Berry to win when the other didn't, they surely join The Coast and current mayor Mike Savage in pulling for Tim.
Freelancer Sam Littlefair-Wallace is nominated for the print Feature Writing prize for
"Cousin & wife," his May 3, 2012 cover story about the past and present of inbreeding. This is Sam's first-ever AJA nomination, so from my perspective he's the clear sentimental favourite. (And I don't want to hear about it if the other contenders—David Lindsay, who wrote "Mining for the Common Good?" for the
Rural Delivery, and Randy O'Donnell, who wrote "Chasing Infinite Dreams in Finite Time" for the
Telegraph-Journal—are also first-timers.)
AJA-nominee "Cousin & wife"
The third Coast-related nominee is Hilary Beaumont, who's vying for The Jim MacNeill New Journalist Award. Hilary's a busy writer with ties to the
Herald and OpenFile besides The Coast, and even if we can't claim full credit for her, our hopes are fully with her to best the competition, Amy Stoodley of CBC News in St. John's, and Carolyn Thompson from the Saint John
Telegraph-Journal.
The gold, silver and bronze awards will be given out May 11 in Halifax, but it really is an honour just to be nominated. So if you bump into Tim, Sam or Hilary this weekend, be sure to offer your congratulations. And remember, beer's on them.
