The AAPA laureate board consisting of Ivan Snyder, Laurie Kitzke, and Mark McComas, has announced its selections for the July 2021 through June 2022 judging period.
In submitting the report, the board noted, "There is a fine line between selecting too many on one hand, and passing over some that deserve an award. The more awards given out, the less meaningful the award is. If we gave an award to everyone who had something in the bundle, the awards would have no meaning. So, hopefully we have not given them out too haphazardly. There are some that we would have liked to recognize with a laureate award, but reluctantly passed them by." They also noted the addition of three categories that do not appear in AAPA's by-laws: "Ephemera, to recognize non-journal submissions; Collaborations, to recognize and encourage teamwork on our bundle submissions; and New Journal, to fill the gap left by the seemingly defunct 'Volume 1 Number 1' (also known as Past Presidents') award."
Here are the selections:
Journal of Overall Excellence: No award
Letterpress Printed Journal: Peter E. Schaub, The Pearl
Honorable Mention: Tom Parson, Say When, No. 6, October 2021
David M. Tribby, The Tribby Tribune
Heather Lane, Ragged Edges
Non-Letterpress Printed Journal: Sean Wilmot, Philamot Magazine
Michael J. O'Connor, Spare Time
Honorable Mention: Suzanne Anderson, Gut and Ennelin
Steve Ingram, Seven Dollar Typewriter
Prose Fiction: Richard L. Hopkins, To Kill a Guy For Smoking
Prose Non-Fiction: Frederick Moe, Farm & Wilderness Report
Poetry: Clarence Wolfshohl, "Studying the Bones" and "Coal Mine Landscape"
Art: John Carvalho, "Resilience," January 2022
Special Awards--
Ephemera: Dan Celani, for his "bordered quotes"
Collaborations: John Carvalho and Kent Clair Chamberlain, Folded Poems, December 2021
New Journal: George Harnish, Random Cubes
Chris McGuiness, The Underling
AAPA's website has a list of all laureate awards going back to 1937.
Amateur journalism is a unique activity. Amateur journalists publish journals on paper & online & come from many perspectives: from deluxe letterpress printed journals, to Xeroxed newsletters, to artistically designed cards and ephemera. We embrace the spirit of being amateurs – loving what we do for pure joy and not financial gain – while creating top quality journals, zines, and homemade publications.