Kristen Hinman

​Kristen Hinman, the award-winning staff writer for VVM's Riverfront Times in St. Louis, wowed the crowd at last weekend's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Dallas. The annual gathering, organized by the University of North Texas and held at the rustic airport Hilton, celebrates narrative writing across the publishing spectrum, including newspapers, online, magazines and books. This year's other speakers included the inimitable Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated fame, who proved as humble in person as his high-concept stories are intimidating (and inspiring) to other writers, and Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden, the former Philadelphia newspaper reporter whose well-received keynote speech carried a subversive central theme: don't be afraid to fight with your editor. Hinman, who recently moved to Washington, D.C. after six years at the RFT, was invited to Dallas to talk about the art of profile writing. The crowd closely followed her play-by-play of the challenges--and personal attacks--she faced when telling the story of irascible St. Louis sports-talk-radio host Kevin Slaten.

​We've got an inside line to the winners of the 2010 AltWeekly Awards, mainly because our very own Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly was the emcee of the just-concluded ceremony in Toronto. According to  Mr. A., VVM writers brought home sixteen first-place prizes in 24 categories, including three out of four in the design realm, and a clean sweep of all the music awards. The Village Voice, edited by Tony Ortega, was the big winner, with five top finishes: Arts Criticism, Political Column, Music Reporting, Staff Blog, and Music Blog. "Ortega killed, and I told him off in public for it, because (Voice news-blog) Runnin' Scared beat (OC Weekly news-blog) Navel Gazing," Arellano reports. Phoenix New Times took three top prizes (Illustration, Column, Health Reporting), while Denver Westword (Feature Story, Cover Design) and LA Weekly (Arts Feature, Food Writing) both snagged a pair. Miami New Times (Editorial Layout), New Times Broward-Palm Beach, (Media Reporting/Criticism), the Houston Press (Public Service) and Seattle Weekly (Long Form News Story) also received first-place honors. We'll post a link to the entire list of winners once the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies makes it available. For now, here's a look at the finalists.

Gustavo "Ask a Mexican" Arellano

​VVM writers and editors will take center stage this week in Toronto when the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies holds its annual convention. First up on Friday afternoon will be Gustavo Arellano, the irrepressible investigative reporter from OC Weekly who's also widely known as the author of the "Ask a Mexican" column. Arellano will emcee the AltWeekly Awards Lunch, where his fellow VVMers are expected to be well represented in the winner's circle. Staff writer Paul Knight and editor Margaret Downing of the Houston Press will be the featured speakers later Friday for a discussion of Knight's "Wild Rides," which broke the story of how Toyota's Prius was subject to unintended acceleration. Investigative ace Lisa Rab of New Times Broward-Palm Beach will speak Saturday as part of a panel on how to brainstorm in-depth reporting projects. And finally, VVM director of new media Bill Jensen will moderate a Saturday panel about the "new opportunities for content creation" associated with the iPad. For those about to talk, we salute you.

​Readers of our publications know that, for one week each year, we step away from our usual habit of pointing out corruption, greed and general misbehavior, and instead shine a light on what's right about our cities. Those are the "Best Of" issues, which traditionally are the most-read issues of the year and serve as the definitive guide to where to eat, shop, drink and enjoy life in our fourteen markets. This week it's South Florida's turn, as Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach fire up their Best Of issues simultaneously. Whether you live in SoFlo or just wish you did, they're your best source for categories ranging from Best Croquetas (Versailles), Best Scarface Homage (Purdy Lounge) or Best Waterfront Dining (the Blue Moon Fish Co.).