Alberta Magazine Awards

Thursday night was an exciting evening for the magazine industry in Alberta—the annual awards dinner celebrating the best in publishing, writing and design was held in Calgary. I had already been informed that I was the recipient the Alberta Magazine Awards' Editor of the Year. It was a surprise to also pick up a gold for Best Art Direction for a Single Issue (for collage-themed issue #18, cover by Sarah Bridgland) and the final award of the night Magazine of the Year! It is an honour to have UPPERCASE recognized in this way; there are so many quality publications being produced in this province. I'll paste my Editor of the Year acceptance speech below....

Thank you very much to Suzanne and Rebecca and the AMPA team for championing UPPERCASE and supporting me. 

As a graphic designer with no formal education in writing or editing, being an editor is a skill that I have picked up in practical ways over the years: first through observation and learning through book and magazine projects that I did as a freelancer. There, I picked up the techniques of editing manuscripts by being the person who had to input all those little revisions to grammar and punctuation. As the curator and designer of UPPERCASE magazine, I am honing my organizational, editorial and curatorial skills and learning by just diving head first into whatever task is at hand. 

If I were to edit the title “editor of the year” I would rename it to “multi-tasker of the year”. As publisher, editor, designer, subscription manager with a whole host of other responsibilities, it is nice that all this hard work is recognized my AMPA and my peers. Thank you to Nikki Sheppy and Sharon McIntyre for their wonderful letters of support following my nomination for this award.

I have the pleasure of collaborating with great writers, photographers and illustrators from around the world for each issue. Thanks to my core contributors and freelancers who always deliver beyond what I ask.

I’d like to acknowledge Erin Bacon, a vital part of the UPPERCASE family. She is a great support and handles marketing, publicity and whatever else that needs to get done.

I’d like to thank my family — my husband Glen Dresser for his continued support of everything that I do and being so understanding of how consuming UPPERCASE can be — and to my son Finley who is wonderful in all ways and inspires me every day.