National Magazine Award finalists include Los Angeles, Byliner

The American Society of Magazine Editors on Monday announced the finalists for its 2013 awards. The National Magazine Awards -- known as the Ellies for the Alexander Calder “Elephant” that winners receive -- will be presented at a luncheon in New York on May 2.

Many of the usual suspects appear on the finalists list: GQ and the New Yorker are perennial favorites, and National Geographic, with a total of seven, received the most nominations. Two finalists are particularly notable.

The first is local contender Los Angeles Magazine. One of its two nominations is “The Food Lovers Guide to L.A.” in the category of Leisure Interests and the other is “The New Face and Body of Plastic Surgery” -- that’s a finalist in the category of Personal Service (go figure).

The other is Byliner, the online newcomer that specializes in long-form stories -- pieces that are a little too long for a standard magazine article, a little too short to count as a book. It has nominations for two originals, one in nonfiction feature writing and the other in fiction: “The Living and the Dead,” Brian Mockenhaupt’s true story of American Marines in Afghanistan and novelist Jennifer Haigh’s short story “The Boy Vanishes.” This is Byliner’s first year among the National Magazine Award finalists.

It’s interesting that Byliner’s stories, which are individually delivered e-books, are in competition against works published in traditional monthly magazines: GQ, Wired, Harper’s, Texas Monthly, the New Yorker.

In all, 62 publications are finalists in the awards’ 23 categories. The complete list is below.

National Magazine Awards 2013 Finalists

General Excellence, Print

News, Sports and Entertainment Magazines
Honors large-circulation weeklies, biweeklies and monthlies

Esquire; Fortune; National Geographic; New York; Wired

Service and Fashion Magazines
Honors women’s magazines, including health, fitness and family-centric publications

Harper’s Bazaar; O, the Oprah Magazine; Real Simple; Vogue; Women’s Health

Lifestyle Magazines
Honors food, travel and shelter magazines as well as city and regional publications

Bon Appétit; House Beautiful; Martha Stewart Living; Saveur; Texas Monthly

Special-Interest Magazines
Honors magazines serving targeted audiences, including enthusiast and hobbyist titles

The Fader; mental_floss; MHQ: the Quarterly Journal of Military History; Outside; Scientific American

Literary, Political and Professional Magazines
Honors small-circulation general-interest magazines as well as academic and scholarly publications

MIT Technology Review; Mother Jones; the New Republic; the Paris Review; Poetry

General Excellence, Digital Media

Chow; Glamour; National Geographic; Pitchfork; Slate

Design

Bon Appétit; Bullett; Details; New York; TIME

Photography

Bon Appétit; Interview; National Geographic; TIME; W

Feature Photography

• Harper’s Magazine for “The Water of My Land,” photographs by Samuel James; September
• Martha Stewart Living for “A Pilgrim’s Feast,” photographs by Anna Williams; November
• National Geographic for “In the Shadow of Wounded Knee” by Alexandra Fuller; photographs by Aaron Huey; August
• New York for “What We Saw When The Lights Went Out” by John Homans; photographs by Iwan Baan, Pari Dukovic, Christopher Griffith, Casey Kelbaugh, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, Joseph Michael Lopez, Gus Powell, Joseph Rodriguez and Peter Yang; November 12
• W for “Good Kate, Bad Kate” by Will Self; photographs by Steven Klein; March

Single-Topic Issue

• Backpacker for “The Survival Issue,” October
• Bloomberg Businessweek for “Election Issue,” Oct. 15-21
• Fast Company for “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies,” March
• Saveur for “The Mexico Issue,” August/September
• Sports Illustrated for “Olympic Preview,” July 23

Magazine Section

• Bon Appétit for “Starters”
• Esquire for “Man at His Best”
• GQ for “The Punch List”
• HGTV Magazine for “Help Wanted”
• New York for “Strategist”

Personal Service

• Esquire for “Fatherhood for Men,” June/July
• GQ for “Marriage: The Most Important, Least Discussed Institution You’ll Ever Be a Part Of,” May
• Los Angeles for “The New Face and Body of Plastic Surgery,” October
• Outside for “Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” by Florence Williams; December
• Real Simple for “Women and Time: Setting a New Agenda,” April

Leisure Interests

• Bon Appétit for “The Incredible Egg” by Carla Lalli Music, April
• ESPN the Magazine for “Fantasy Football,” August 6
• Golf Digest for “Masters Preview,” April
• Los Angeles for “The Food Lover’s Guide to L.A.,” edited by Lesley Bargar Suter; November
• Wired for “How to Be a Geek Dad,” June

Website

AFAR; the Atlantic; Golf Digest; National Geographic; Scientific American

Tablet Magazine

Bloomberg Businessweek; Bon Appétit; Esquire; Money; National Geographic

Multimedia

• Field & Stream for “The Best Days of the Rut 2012,” November Print Issue, and “The F&S Rut Reporters” at fieldandstream.com and for iPhone
• Mother Jones for “MoJo Labs: Data Journalism and Graphics”
• National Geographic for “Cheetahs on the Edge,” November iPad Edition
• The New Yorker for “Secrets of Edgewood”
• TIME for Hurricane Sandy coverage

Video

• The Daily Beast for “How Obama Learned to Kill,” June 6, and “The Keys to the Economy,” October 25, from the Op-Vid Series
• Mother Jones for “Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser,” September 18
• The Oxford American for “Tiny Town!,” June 8, and “I’ll Paint Something Worthwhile,” August 15, from the SoLost Video Series
• Saveur for “How to Make Salsa Verde With Avocado,” August 15, “Martin Yan Makes Scallion Pancakes,” October 10, and “How to Make the Perfect Tempura,” December 4, from the Master Class Video Series
• Sports Illustrated for “Welcome to Friendship Beach,” August 21, and “Loud and Clear,” September 25, from the Underdogs Video Series

Public Interest

• The Atlantic for “The Writing Revolution” by Peg Tyre; October
• Consumer Reports for “Arsenic in Your Juice,” January, and “Arsenic in Your Food,” November, by Andrea Rock
• The New Yorker for “The Throwaways” by Sarah Stillman; September 3
• Rolling Stone for “School of Hate” by Sabrina Rubin Erdely; February 16
• Texas Monthly for “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives” by Mimi Swartz; August

Reporting

• Chicago for “Lawbreakers, Lawmakers” by David Bernstein and Noah Isackson; January
• GQ for “18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque and 1 Man Dead in Ohio” by Chris Heath; March
• Harper’s Magazine for “All Politics Is Local: Election Night in Peru’s Largest Prison” by Daniel Alarcón; February
• The New York Times Magazine for “Did You Think About the Six People You Executed?” by Robert F. Worth; May 13
• The New Yorker for “The Implosion,” February 27, and “The War Within,” August 27, by Jon Lee Anderson
• Texas Monthly for “Hannah and Andrew” by Pamela Colloff; January
• The Texas Observer for “Valley of Death” by Melissa del Bosque; March

Feature Writing Incorporating Profile Writing

• Byliner for “The Living and the Dead” by Brian Mockenhaupt; October
• GQ for “The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador” by Karen Russell; October
• GQ for “Burning Man” by Jay Kirk; February
• Mother Jones for “Shelf Lives” by Mac McClelland; March/April
• The New Yorker for “Atonement” by Dexter Filkins; October 29 & November 5
• Texas Monthly for “The Innocent Man: Part I,” November, and “The Innocent Man: Part II,” December, by Pamela Colloff
• Wired for “Inside the Mansion -- and the Mind -- of Kim Dotcom, the Most Wanted Man on the Internet” by Charles Graeber; November

Essays and Criticism

• The Atlantic for “Fear of a Black President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates; September
• Foreign Policy for “Why Do They Hate Us?” by Mona Eltahawy; May/June
• New York for “A Life Worth Ending” by Michael Wolff; May 28
• The New Yorker for “Over the Wall” by Roger Angell; November 19
• Orion for “State of the Species” by Charles C. Mann; November/December

Columns and Commentary

• Elle for three columns by Daphne Merkin: “Portrait of a Lady,” March; “Social Animal,” May; and “We’re All Helmut Newton Now,” October
• The Nation for three columns by Katha Pollitt: “Protect Pregnant Women: Free Bei Bei Shuai,” March 26; “Ann Romney, Working Woman?” May 7; and “Blasphemy Is Good for You,” October 15
• New York for three columns by Frank Rich: “Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?” February 6; “Mayberry R.I.P.,” July 30; and “Nora’s Secret,” August 27-September 3
• The New York Times Magazine for three columns by Adam Davidson: “It Ain’t Just Pickles,” February 19; “The $200,000-Nanny Club,” March 25; and “Caymans, Here We Come,” July 29
• Slate for three columns by Dahlia Lithwick: “It’s Not About the Law, Stupid,” March 22; “The Supreme Court’s Dark Vision of Freedom,” March 27; and “Where Is the Liberal Outrage?” July 6

Fiction

• Byliner for “The Boy Vanishes” by Jennifer Haigh; July
• Harper’s Magazine for “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation” by Stephen King; September
• Harper’s Magazine for “Train” by Alice Munro; April
• McSweeney’s Quarterly for “River Camp” by Thomas McGuane; September
• The Paris Review for “Housebreaking” by Sarah Frisch; December

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