Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Minneapolis - Northeaster Entry Title: Preserving plywood protest art Entry Credit: Margo Ashmore Judge Comment: This is a solid story that doesn't pull its punches or shy away from race. It's nice to see the diversity in what even the story acknowledges is, largely, a white area.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Little Falls - Morrison County Record Entry Title: 12-13-20 Lighting up the season Entry Credit: Zach Hacker Judge Comment: This kind of story tends to come up every year at just about every newspaper in a Christmas-celebrating country. This one managed to hold my interest throughout, which is no small feat on something so frequently routine.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Blaine, Spring Lk Park, Columbia Hgt, Fridley Life Entry Title: A friendship you couldn't script Entry Credit: Patrick Slack Judge Comment: This story idea gave the writer a lot to work with from the start, but the writer used it to full effect, not trying to condense it into a 10- or 15-inch tale, and that -- along with the space the publication allowed it -- is a rare thing these days.
Competition Comment: These are all solid stories, a few knocked down by easily fixed style issues rather than by anything substantially wrong. But the ones that stood out as winners stood out for various reasons.
