The Virginia Quarterly Review

While NewMexiKen is in Virginia — awaiting grandchild number six — I thought I might mention The Virginia Quarterly Review, nominated this week for six National Magazine Awards.

Wow! Everyone in our office has been trying not to hyperventilate. The finalists for the 2006 National Magazine Awards (the magazine world’s equivalent to the Pulitzers or the National Book Awards) were announced today and VQR garnered six nominations! Pretty unheard of for a magazine our size. The Atlantic Monthly led all magazines with eight nominations, then came us, followed by GQ, Harper’s, National Geographic, New York, and The New Yorker with five nominations each. Pretty heady company. We received a nomination in the General Excellence category for magazines with circulations under 100,000 (which we fit well under). Also nominated in this category were Aperture, The Believer, Legal Affairs, and ReadyMade.

And congrats go out to our writers whose work was chosen as finalists:

• Sven Birkerts, for Reviews & Criticism, for his essays “Humboldt’s Gift” (Summer issue) and “A Weekend at Montauk” (Winter 2005 issue),
• Pauline W. Chen in the Essay category for “Dead Enough?: The Paradox of Brain Death” (Fall 2005 issue),
• Martin Preib in the Essay category for “The Wagon” (Summer 2005 issue),
• Isabel Allende in Fiction for “The Guggenheim Lovers” (Summer 2005 issue; sorry, not available online),
• Brock Clarke in Fiction for “The Ghosts We Love” (Summer 2005 issue),
• Alan Heathcock in Fiction for “Peacekeeper” (Fall 2005 issue),
• R.T. Smith in Fiction for “Ina Grove” (Fall 2005 issue),
• And Joyce Carol Oates in Fiction for two stories, “So Help Me God” (Winter 2005 issue) and “Smother” (Fall 2005 issue). (Incredibly, Oates had another story nominated, “High Lonesome” published in Zoetrope: All Story.)

Winners will be announced on May 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

Trifecta

Oh, by the way, Governor Kempthorne, welcome to the Indian Trust litigation.

First it was Cobell v. Babbitt. Then it became Cobell v. Norton. After confirmation of Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as the new Interior secretary, it will be Cobell v. Kempthorne.

The judge in this, the individual Indian trust class action lawsuit, has already found both Secretary Babbitt and Secretary Norton in contempt (though an appeals court overturned the latter).

Winning a pool in 20 easy steps

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (registration required):

2. Fill your bracket out backwards.

That’s right, backwards.

“After thinking hard about the tournament and potential matchups, decide first who you think is most likely to win the whole shebang,” says Yale professor Edward Kaplan, who co-authored a mathematical analysis of NCAA tournament pools. “Pen that team in as your winner, then work backwards, [writing it in for the previous five rounds].

“Next, decide your pick for the loser in the championship game, then the two losing Final Four teams. Keep working backwards until you have filled in the entire draw.”

3. Make sure your national champion has at least one former McDonald’s All-American on its roster. Only one winner since 1979 hasn’t.

And my personal favorite:

11. Listen extra carefully to what Dick Vitale, Billy Packer and Jay Bilas have to say the next few days about who’ll win, why they’ll win and how they’ll win.

Then, do the exact opposite.

Blood (or is that sour grape juice) on the red carpet

Annie Proulx is really, really upset that Brokeback Mountain didn’t win more Oscars.

James Madison

… was born on this date in 1751.

No government any more than an individual will long be respected without being truly respectable.

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

[I]t is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.

NewMexiKen

The URL newmexiken.com is two years old today.