VQR Nominated for Four National Magazine Awards

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) today recognized the Virginia Quarterly Review with four nominations for its prestigious National Magazine Awards—the magazine world’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes. VQR was named as a finalist in four categories: General Excellence, Reporting, Fiction, and Essays and Criticism.

W. Ralph Eubanks was the Editor of VQR for the 2014 issues. In addition to acquiring numerous works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and criticism for each issue, he developed issue concepts with his editorial colleagues. The team effort led to VQR’s eighth General Excellence nomination in the past eleven years. 

The General Excellence in Literature, Science, and Politics category recognizes editorial and visual excellence in smaller-circulation general-interest magazines as well as publications covering the arts. Also named as finalists in this category are the American Scholar, Foreign Affairs, Mother Jones, and Nautilus.

“I am proud to see VQR acclaimed by the magazine publishing community,” Eubanks said. “We are able to attract major writers because of the close amount of care that we give their work—and that we allow them to write longer pieces than they can at other publications. VQR is also dedicated to launching emerging talent, so that they can be published alongside their more established peers.” 

Under VQR’s distributed editorial model, each full-time staff member oversees content for the magazine. For example, our ASME nomination for reporting was acquired and edited by Deputy Editor Paul Reyes, our nomination for fiction was acquired and edited by Managing Editor Allison Wright, and our nomination for essays and criticism was acquired by Eubanks and edited by Publisher Jon Parrish Peede.

For the Reporting category, which honors reporting excellence, VQR was nominated for Jason Motlagh’s “The Ghosts of Rana Plaza” from the spring 2014 issue. Motlagh began his association with the magazine as a University of Virginia undergraduate intern.

For Essays and Criticism, VQR was nominated for Philip Kennicott’s “Smuggler” from the fall issue. The category honors interpretative and critical journalism on subjects ranging from the personal experience of the writer to politics, literature, and the arts. 

The Fiction category honors fiction originally published in magazines. A graduate of the University of Virginia MFA program, Greg Jackson was nominated for “Serve-and-Volley, Near Vichy” from the fall issue. 

In 2015, VQR will continue the restructuring of our editorial team, including the addition of section editors for the print magazine. And we will name several new contributing editors, including long-time VQR contributor and current ASME nominee Jason Motlagh.

“The University of Virginia has a long tradition of literary excellence and intellectual inquiry,” Peede said, “and our magazine is proud to contribute to that tradition and to enrich the lives of our readers.”