The University of Central Arkansas’s Vortex earned the General Excellence award for literary magazines in the recent Arkansas College Media Association awards.
The award highlighted a strong showing by UCA writing and journalism outlets.
“I’m delighted,” said Garry Craig Powell, the faculty adviser for Vortex. “It’s a testament to the talent, passion and dedication of our students that we so consistently produce the best undergraduate literary magazine in the state. It’s also a testament to the quality of our writing and art programs. If you’re a creative person, I believe UCA is the best place in the state to study or teach.
“And if anything, the 2012 edition is even more stunning, so expect more awards next year.”
Because of publication cycles, the 2010-11 literary magazines and yearbooks were entered for the 2012 awards. Newspapers were judged from the 2011-12 academic year.
Both The Echo, UCA’s student newspaper, and The Scroll, the university’s yearbook, were selected for honorable mention honors in their respective General Excellence categories.
The 2012 ACMA media contest featured entries from Arkansas State, Arkansas Tech, Central Baptist College, John Brown University, Northwest Arkansas Community College, Ouachita Baptist University, Southern Arkansas University, UCA, University of Arkansas, UALR and University of Arkansas at Monticello. Entries were judged by faculty from California State University-Chico; Cayuga Community College (N.Y.); Eastern New Mexico University; Florida Atlantic University; Gonzaga University (Wash.); Kansas State; LSU; Moraine Valley Community College; Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; Texas Tech; Texas Wesleyan; Texas Woman’s University; University of Southern Mississippi; University of Texas-Arlington and Washburn University (Kan.)
Other awards won by Vortex included cover design, first; poetry, Megan Riley, “Wicked Bitch of the South”, second; typography, Emily Powell, first; fiction writing, Gustav Carlson, “The Red Eye of the White Sun”, first, and Cassey E. Misee, “Barefoot in the Briar”, third; illustrative narrative, Carlson, “The Man Who Sounded of a Million Pigs”, first; and artwork, first.
Other awards won by The Echo included:
• General column, Jeanette Anderton, “Arkansans should wait until 25 to marry”, second;
• Feature writing, Mary DeLoney, “New fraternity to recruit ‘founding fathers’”, third;
• Meeting/speech coverage writing, Jeanette Anderton and Zachary O’Neal, “College brings awareness to environment during challenge week”, honorable mention;
• Editorial writing, Brad Smith, second;
• Feature photo, Libin Qin, “Homecoming”, honorable mention;
• Sports photo, Ian Caple, “Corner Kick”, honorable mention;
• Sports story writing, Lee Hogan, “Bears football chops down Lumberjacks”, honorable mention;
• Sports column writing, Lee Hogan, “Once greatest golfer in world, now mere shell of himself”, honorable mention;
• Advertising, Matt Williams, “Vortex Magazine”, third;
• Editorial cartoon, Alan Masingill, “Something in the water”, tie first; Allen McMillan, “Tar is hell”, second;
• Cartoon strip or single panel entertainment cartoon, Lance Coleman, “Kodiak moment”, first;
• Front page layout, Mary DeLoney, “11/2/11”, honorable mention;
• Sports page layout, Lee Hogan, “Feb. 22, 2012”, honorable mention;
• Editorial page layout, Brad Smith, “11/16/11″, first; Brad Smith, “9/14/11″, second.
Other awards won by The Scroll included:
• Divider, “Academics”, honorable mention;
• Endsheets, second;
• Feature layout, Davion Dotson, “El Embajdor”, tie third; Kale Green, “Talesha Little”, tie third; Kale Green, “Dorm Contest”, honorable mention;
• Academic layout, Davion Dotson and Courtney Hopper, “CFAC”, third; Davion Dotson, “College of Education”, honorable mention;
• Student life layout, Kale Green, “Smoking Ban”, first; Kale Green, “Homecoming”, third; Tara Anglin, “College Moms”, honorable mention;
• Sports layout, Emily Avery, third; Davion Dotson, honorable mention;
• Typographic presentation, Davion Dotson, first;
• Sports photo, James Austin, “Guard”, honorable mention.
Raven Ambers won the television news reporting category for her work with UCA’s News6. Virginia Buff took second.
