We at Deadspin can't bear the thought of hardworking, important, tell-it-like-it-is writers being denied the pleasure of winning major awards. That's why we were heartbroken to learn this week that Chris Jones, a former blogger and current writer for Esquire and ESPN and the winner of two (2) National Magazine Awards, was not listed as a finalist for the 2013 National Magazine Awards. It was the second year in a row that Jones was not nominated for his third National Magazine Award. So we've decided to bestow the second-ever Deadspin Good Writering Award to Chris Jones.
Jones's snub this year is doubly heartbreaking because, while he was not nominated for his third National Magazine Award for any of the stories he wrote this year, a fellow writer (which in the awards sense is really just a "competitor") named Chris Heath was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a story that Jones also wrote this year, about the 2011 Zanesville Zoo massacre. Heath's GQ story, "18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio," is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in Reporting. Jones's Esquire story, "Animals," is not. (Jones was previously not nominated for his 2010 Roger Ebert profile.)
Jones, to his credit, took this all in stride:
It is always a shame, we know, when the world suggests that we are not as good as we think. Chris, we salute you, and grant you this award.
Certificate by Jim Cooke.