I was delighted on Friday night to see Elisabeth Hay’s “City as Redhead” win the National Magazine Award gold medal for Best Short Feature.

There aren’t many upscale events in the life of a small magazine editor, but the National Magazine Awards, held at the swanky art deco era Carlu theatre in Toronto, is one of them. I never used to go, put off by the ticket price ($100 back then, $125 now) and the late hour. But that all changed in 2002. I had called the NMA office for advice on mounting our short-listed pieces for display. “Are you going to the awards this year?” the person on the other end asked. “No,” I said. “Oh,” she answered with a protracted diminuendo I figured must signal something, so I bought a ticket and, indeed, that was the year The New Quarterly won gold in both the fiction and poetry categories. I arrived home to a list scrawled on the kitchen blackboard: world peace [ ], economic equality [ ], 2 gold medals [check].

The small magazines are usually a small presence at the National Magazine Awards. It’s expensive to submit ($80 a pop) as well as to attend. But there are a lot of good reasons for doing so.  First, it’s a way to get your measure, to see how what you are publishing stands up to the competition and, not coincidentally, to provide your patrons and grantors with a measure as well. It’s a way to support your writers, both with a vote of confidence and, should they win, with a top up to the smallish stipend you are able to pay for first publication (gold medalists take away $1000, silver medalists $500). Finally, it’s a way to see where your strengths lie.

The Malahat Review is the prince of poetry (11 golds and 6 silvers over the past 30 years, more than any other magazine). TNQ has a stronger record for fiction than poetry, but the real story for us is, increasingly, how broadly we contend, especially for a literary magazine. We have been short-listed in categories as diverse as essay, personal journalism, sports, arts & entertainment, how-to, and best single issue (for our 2008 Montreal issue, published in both official languages). Our editors also contend for work published elsewhere: this year, consulting editor Amanda Jernigan was short-listed for a trio of poems published in Arc.

In keeping with our expanding reach, our gold medal for the Best Short Feature, for Elizabeth Hay’s heart-squeak of an essay “City as Redhead,” the parallel stories of her own return to Ottawa and her red-haired grandmother’s death there some years earlier, is our first in this category. (She received an honorable mention for another New Quarterly essay, “Last Poems,” in the Personal Journalism category as well).

When I attend the awards, I gravitate first towards the servers—the food is amazing, and I try to eat my hundred bucks worth—and then towards the other “smallies” (small magazines editors) to talk shop and grouse about The Walrus. The Walrus seems to have endless reserves of cash, both to attract writers and to nominate work, often the same piece in multiple categories. (Confession: I am a reader of The Walrus, which again walked away with the most awards, and don’t begrudge them their wins—the work is deserving.) Still it is a thrill when an underdog triumphs.

How great, then, to see the smallies capture all the literary awards this year. The Malahat, again a strong contender under the direction of editor John Barton, took both the poetry awards. The gold went to a long poem (15 pages!) by Marion Quednau, which also won Malahat’s Long Poem Prize. The silver went to P.K. Page’s “Cullen in Old Age,” Cullen a more robust and imaginative version of Prufrock; it was, I believe, the last poem she published before her death last year at 93. Fiddlehead took the gold for fiction for Steven Heighton’s “Shared Room on Union” (Steve Heighton a TNQ favorite and frequent presence at the NMAs). The silver went to Descant for Adam Lindsay Honsinger’s “Silence.” Prairie Fire, another smallie, took the silver in Personal Journalism.

We were also cheered to see the Yellowknife-based Up Here win Magazine of the Year. The judges citation noted that “[t]he degree of difficulty in finding the human and other resources to publish, print and distribute from the north only adds to the measure of the accomplishment here. It is distinctive, fresh and unpredictable with engaging and accessible content that crosses both disciplinary and geographical boundaries. Its commitment and passion are…evident—and contagious.” The magazine’s editors greeted the news with contagious jubilation, though their editor-in-chief lamented having told her companions she’d retire when they won Magazine of the Year. In fact, she back-paddled.

After the ceremony, the crowd spilled out into the central hallway for after-snacks and desserts. I didn’t brave the chocolate fountain this year (I was sporting a white tunic and the memory of last year’s disgrace), but I made up for it at the pastry table.

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