Editor’s Note - AAN awards announced

CL picks up two

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced Monday that CL will pick up two AAN journalism awards for work done in 2005. Former Food Editor Bill Addison won for his writing. Former staff photographer Jim Stawniak won for a dramatic image he shot to accompany a cover story called “Losing Hanna.”

You may have noticed one word in that last paragraph: “former.” Bill, who did a fabulous job here as an editor and a writer, took a critic’s position at the San Francisco Chronicle. Jim, a longtime staffer regarded as one of the city’s best photojournalists, left in March to grow his freelance business. We’re still working on Jim’s replacement, but readers already know Besha Rodell is ably following in Bill’s footsteps.

While two AAN winners are no longer are with us, a new editor at CL found out this week he’ll receive an AAN award for work at his former paper.

Until last month, David Lee Simmons worked as arts and entertainment editor for Gambit Weekly in New Orleans, where he wrote “Panic attack,” a compelling examination of a movie filmed by the late director Elia Kazan in New Orleans. After Katrina, he returned to Gambit, and was serving as managing editor when we snagged him to become our new A&E editor.

David Lee’s an energetic, smart journalist who rallied a skeletal staff through a crisis. “The one thing I learned after Katrina,” he says, “was the ability of a staff — really, of a city — to reinvent itself and reach beyond itself.”

If you have thoughts to share about our arts and entertainment coverage, now would be a good time to share them with David Lee at davidlee.simmons@creativeloafing.com. It’s also a good time to congratulate all three journalists for the work they’ve done.

ken.edelstein@creativeloafing.com