Tomorrow nine Salienteers are headed up to Hamilton on a sojourn that will either end in immortal fame or life devastating shame.
The Aotearoa Student Press Association has an annual conference where us student media cats can all go hang out in one big room, drink booze and be as pretentious as we want. We come together under the guise of an awards ceremony where the best writers among us are celebrated and the pitiful writers are denigrated by the high powered judges that the award ceremony traditionally attracts.
Let’s make it clear now: Winning an ASPA award is like winning a Pulitzer Prize, but betterer.
Last year Salient won three awards. This year we hope for at least four, since last year Salient was pretty shit. I can’t remember everyone who is nominated or what they’re nominated for but I’ll try to recall it through the codeine haze.
Seonah Choi: Best News writer, paid
Tony Barnao: Best Design
Jackson Wood: Best Humour
Michael Oliver: Best Sport
Matthew Proctor: Best Column
Sarah Robson: Best News writer, unpaid
Tania Mead: Best Feature
Haimona Gray: Best Reviewer
Jenna Powell… Not sure, maybe its like best feature series about education of something… but she’s coming up in the van with us tomorrow, so she better win or I’ll kick her in the shins.
If there is anyone else I have forgotten… Oh Tristan might be entered in something… like best editor but he’s already so awesome that a prize goes no way to show how awesome he actually has been as an editor this year and putting up with all our shit.
Oh yeah and if we win enough stuff we might even win the overall award best publication. Which will last won in 2004.
So wish us luck. If you’re not going to wish us luck at least read the fucking magazine you philistine.