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Metro Writers Win National Awards

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN), a national association of more than 100 alternative arts/newsweeklies, announced the winners of its first editorial contest May 30 at its 1996 convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two Metro writers took first place honors. Best Food Writing: Christina Waters won for her piece "Waiting for Merlot." Judges Patricia Unterman of the San Francisco Examiner and Laura Shapiro of Newsweek said of Waters' work: "It's hard to write about wine without sounding vacant or pretentious. This story is a rare exception: Knowledgeable, substantive and evocative." Best Music Writing, Under 55,000 Circulation: Rafer Guzman won for his music criticism as a freelancer. Guzman has since joined the Metro staff as a staff writer. Robert Christgau, a senior editor at the Village Voice, said in his evaluation of Guzman's piece: "Although he's still young, Rafer Guzman has the essential virtue of treating his column as first of all a place to put language to work -- there's a care and deftness in the prose that's hard to come by in the smaller papers. Almost alone among the entrants in this category, he appeared totally unfazed by the artists who granted him access, granting them respect without ever coming close to fawning or gaping." A complete list of AAN award winners is available on the AAN web page.