Three contests and a scholarship competition are now open. Show us what you’ve been working on! The contests include all types of communication media—print (nonfiction and fiction), photography, videography, broadcast, internet, public relations…. See information about the contests and scholarships, and prepare your entries!

New Mexico Press Women President Sherri Burr has been honored by the National Federation of Press Women as its 2021 Communicator of Achievement. This award, which is presented to one member each year, is the organization’s highest honor. It recognizes professional achievement in communications, service to the organization, and service to the community. Read more about Sherri in this post, which announced her selection as New Mexico Press Women’s 2021 CoA.Only four other members of New Mexico Press Women have been named NFPW’s Communicator of Achievement. They are:
Faye Plank (1981)
Ree Sheck (2005)
Cary Herz (2008)
Loretta Hall (2016)

Congratulations, Sherri!

Congratulations to winners of the National Federation of Press Women’s Communications Contest for their works, which had placed first in their categories in the state contest. The honorees are:

Chris Allen, Pat Walkow, New Mexico
3 ^rd Place, Book Edited by Entrant

Barb Belknap, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Publication Regularly Edited by Entrant, Newspaper

Sherri Burr, New Mexico
1st Place, Columns, Informational
2^nd Place, Speech

Mary Lou Cooper, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Special Programming, Radio

Marisa Demarco, Hannah Colton, Megan Kamerick, New Mexico
1^st Place, Radio and Television, Talk Show

Bob Diven, New Mexico
2^nd Place, Nonfiction Book for Adult Readers, Humor

Jennifer Edelson, New Mexico
1^st Place, Young Adult Book,  Fiction

Kathryn Hammel, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Children’s Book, Fiction
3^rd Place Short Stories, Single story

Lynne Hinton, New Mexico
1^st Place, Fiction for Adult Readers, Novels (More than 40,000 words)

Sandi Hoover and Jim Tritten, New Mexico
2^nd Place, Fiction for Adult Readers, Novellas

Jennifer Hull, New Mexico
1^st Place, Nonfiction Book for Adult Readers, Biography or History

Carrie Ishee, New Mexico
1^st Place, PR video promoting specific product or service
1^st Place, Non-fiction Book for Adult Readers, Autobiography or Memoir

Megan Kamerick, New Mexico
2^nd Place, Specialty Articles, Arts and entertainment
2^nd Place, Special Programming, Radio

Megan Kamerick, Andy Lyman, New Mexico
Honorable Mention, Podcast

Colleen Keane, New Mexico
Honorable Mention, Personality Profile, More than 500 words

Tara Lumpkin, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Website Edited or Managed by Entrant, Nonprofit, government or educational

Andy Lyman, New Mexico
1^st Place, Feature Story, Online publication

Kathleen McCleery, New Mexico
2^nd Place, Video for Web, Special interest video
Honorable Mention, Video for Web, Video for nonprofit or government organization 

Mary Mendoza, New Mexico
1^st Place, Radio and Television, Interview

Mary Morris
1^st Place, Creative Verse, Book of Poetry

Sharon Niederman, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Nonfiction Book for Adult Readers, General Nonfiction

Tracy Patrick, New Mexico
1^st Place, Specialty Articles, Hobby

Sylvia Ramos Cruz, New Mexico
1^st Place, Creative Verse, Single poem

Sherry Robinson, New Mexico
Honorable Mention, Continuing Coverage or Unfolding News

Diane Joy Schmidt, New Mexico
1^st Place, Photography, Photographer-writer

Madison Staten, New Mexico
2^nd Place, Prepared Report, Television

Claudette Sutton, New Mexico
1^st Place, Website Edited or Managed by Entrant, Corporate or for-profit
2^nd Place, Publication Regularly Edited by Entrant, Magazine/Magapaper
Honorable Mention, Specialty Articles, Arts and entertainment

Jasmine Tritten, New Mexico
Honorable Mention, Book Designed by Entrant
Honorable Mention, Single Photograph,- General photo (open competition on any subject)

Leora Zeitlin, New Mexico
3^rd Place, Web and Social Media, Web Copy

The June online meeting of Albuquerque Press Women and Friends will be a very special occasion. The guest speaker will be Larry Ryckman of the Colorado Sun, a community newspaper which has spearheaded the purchase of 24 more Colorado community newspapers in order to save them. He will be telling about that effort.

The meeting will be at 12 noon, Monday, June 14, via Zoom. In order to be recognized and allowed to join the Zoom, you must register in advance with Linda Lockett at lockettabq@comcast.net. She will send you the link.

You can read a little bit about this here:
https://coloradosun.com/2021/05/03/colorado-sun-purchases-colorado-community-media-newspapers/

A preview of that article:

All too often these days, hedge funds are the first ones in line to buy newspapers, and no one wanted to see that happen. News is too important to be left to absentee owners who care only about double-digit profits, not the journalists and the communities they serve.

Together, The Sun and the National Trust have purchased Colorado Community Media, which has 24 weekly and monthly newspapers serving eight counties including and surrounding Denver.

Larry Ryckman is editor and co-founder of The Colorado Sun. Previously he was senior editor at The Denver Post, managing editor at The Gazette in Colorado Springs and city editor at the Greeley Tribune. Ryckman spent 22 years at The Associated Press, where he was assistant managing editor, a national editor and supervisor of the AP’s national desk in New York. He spent nearly four years as a Moscow correspondent for AP and helped cover the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of a new Russia. He also supervised AP’s coverage of the Columbine High School massacre and directed AP’s coverage of the presidential election recount in Florida in 2000.

Sherri Burr has been awarded New Mexico Press Women’s highest honor as recipient of the 2020 Communicator of Achievement award. Sherri survived a turbulent childhood to attend Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and Yale Law School. Elected President of New Mexico Press Women in 2018, she has led the organization through the pandemic, and was unanimously re-elected last year. After celebrating NMPW’s70th Anniversary in 2019, Burr had to cancel the 2020 conference and spearhead changes to the bylaws to permit online meetings and voting. Burr is a communicator of extraordinary depth, having been a law professor for close to 30 years, a columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune, and the author of over two dozen award-winning books and hundreds of articles. She also produced a television show and spearheaded the launch of a not-for-profit art gallery. In 2015, she received a Monticello Fellowship to work on Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865, which, after being published in 2019, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Sherri currently serves on the Authors Guild Foundation Board; the foundation educates and advocates for the rights of all authors.

Congratulations, Sherri!