Congrats to Lapham’s Quarterly, Lewis Lapham’s journal of history, which was awarded “Best New Publication” at the 20th Annual Utne Independent Press Awards last week.
Though I gave the journal a bit of a hard time back when it was first introduced, I believed then, as now, that its challenge to the infamous anti-intellectual tendencies of journalism (and of American culture more generally)–not to mention its admirable blending of journalistic forms–make Lapham’s Quarterly a commendable example of what journalism can be with a little imagination. As the Utne staff writes of the Quarterly in its award summary, each volume “hosts a conversation around a central theme—education, money, nature—with 200 or so pages of snippets, excerpts, and artwork gleaned from more than two millennia of human intelligence and insight.”
Can’t argue with that. Congrats, guys.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.