Garden Globe Awards

**Saxon Holt s*@saxonholt.com**

Having been a judge at the awards and having won awards when I didn't expect
it and not won awards when I was sure I would I will submit an opinion or
two here.

Each category is judged based on what is submitted and only the top
percentage are able to receive recognition.  The quality of judges is top
notch and they know their stuff.  In a very strong year on in a strong
category good pieces will miss  out.  That's the breaks.  We should tip our
hats to those judges that had to make difficult choices.  Quality DOES win
out and a small circulation publication with a small budget is NOT judged
differently, certainly not in writing (photography in small publications can
suffer from reproduction quality though).  We were all surprised last year
when a series of articles from the Portland Oregonean newspaper rose to the
top and won the overall best of the year award.  Not a coffee table book,
not a slick magazine or famous author but a genuinely amazing piece that
could not be overlooked.

Personally I hope the awards will not be diluted by increasing the number of
categories.  There are already too many for our relatively small publishing
niche as it is.  Small publications should not be judged differently and I
suspect have won as many award (if not more) than the bigger media (who
don't submit as much as one may think).

It is agonizing, but I think it is fair.

Saxon Holt

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