Whitefish Review wins national readers' choice award for best cover

The American Society of Magazine Editors have announced the finalists and winners of the 12th ASME Best Cover Contest.

“From Norman Rockwell illustrations on The Saturday Evening Post to Annie Leibovitz photographs on Vanity Fair, Americans have always relied on magazine covers to tell us where we are and where we’re going,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of ASME. “The entries in this year’s ASME Best Cover Contest continue in that tradition.”

Entries are judged by panelists, but each category also has its own Readers’ Choice winner. Whitefish Review was entered in the “Brainiest” category.

Judges picked The New Yorker as the “Brainiest” category winner for “Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley,” March 6. Finalists included The Chronicle Review for “You’re Wrong,” May 12; Harper’s Magazine for “Who Owns Black Pain?,” July; TIME for “Infrastructure,” April 10; and Wired for “What Lies Ahead,” February. Whitefish Review was the Readers’ Choice winner for its “Rising Voices” Winter/Spring 2017-18 issue.

The cover features Robert Bissell’s “Blowdown!” with six bears raising a fallen tree among a clearcut, inspired by Joe Rosenthal’s photo of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima in February 1945.

“We are honored and inspired that national readers chose Whitefish Review as their favorite in this competitive category,” said Brian Schott, founder and editor-in-chief. “As a small Montana journal trying to make a national statement, we feel our cover speaks to the rising voices in America concerned about a sustainable planet.”

“Rising Voices” issue #21 features nearly 40 authors, poets, photographers, and artists including interviews with actor Michael Keaton and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Fahrenthold.

This year 128 magazines entered the ASME Best Cover contest, submitting 261 covers in 10 categories. More than 100 editors, art directors and photo editors judged the contest. Readers’ Choice voting began January 2 on Facebook and lasted four weeks; 2.3 million media consumers saw the contest on Facebook, and 80,000 voted.

The American Society of Magazine Editors is the principal organization for magazine journalists in the United States. The members of ASME include the editorial leaders of most major consumer and business magazines published in print and on digital platforms.

To view the 2018 ASME Best Cover Contest gallery, visit asmebestcovercontest.org. To view previous winners and finalists, visit magazine.org/asmebestcovercontest.

Whitefish Review can be purchased online at www.whitefishreview.org, at local bookstores across the Northwest, and is currently featured in 160 Barnes & Noble stores across the nation.