Celebrating Our Ink-Stained Wretches
Freelance writing is a terrible way to make a living. Even writing for a newspaper—for those extremely lucky to find full-time employment—isn’t the luxurious sinecure it was in the 1980s. Just this year, we lost one of our most valuable voices when Josh Noel finally walked away from the dysfunctional Chicago Tribune. In fact, Courtney Iseman discussed this very thing when she dispatched her October 12th edition of Hugging the Bar:
About half of my weekly workload generates no income…. We want to explore different projects, gain experience in new fields, and, of course, we need to promote our work. Our calendars start to fill with things in these areas that we at first see as all part of the big picture, even though we survive based on every hour we work or every project we work on being billable. It’s frankly untenable.
On the other hand, as she points out, most freelancers do the work they do because the love beer, the people making and serving it, and want to tell their stories. “I wanted to write beer stories traditional media outlets wouldn’t run, I wanted to get personal, I wanted to be able to really keep DEI-related issues at the core, I wanted to foster community.” Freelancers work in spite of the shitty hours and laughable income. The world is better for their hard work reporting and reflecting on the industry.
So let’s celebrate these quixotic individuals I am so pleased to call my friends and colleagues. Yesterday, the North American Guild of Beer Writers announced the winners of their annual writing awards.
Who were these creative, interesting people? Let’s look at a few of the big winners as examples of how valuable their work is:
David Nilsen (a 1st and 2nd place). Beer magazines have all but vanished, yet this year David launched an old-school, laser-printed, pre-internet ‘zine called Final Gravity, which showcases a broad selection of new and emerging voices writing about eclectic topics. (It took home two awards.)
Lana Svitankova (a first-place win). A native Ukrainian currently living in Switzerland, Lana has promoted her home country through her efforts to popularize a local beer style. During the first weeks of the Russian invasion, she led fundraisers for Ukraine.
Kevin Kain (1st). Kevin’s occasional blog Casket Beer is the site of some of the most interesting beer writing out there, and he tackles niche subjects with determination. No one has improved my understanding of glassware than Kevin.
Beth Demmon (one 1st). Beth writes in-depth biographies about dynamic folks from underrepresented groups on her Substack Prohibitchin’, and just last month released her first book on cider.
David Jesudason (3rd, honorable mention) probably gets my vote for writer of the past year for his incredibly interesting, sensitive work about the South Asian experience in the UK. He released a book on the subject.
Mark LaFaro (1st, honorable mention). Mark had one of the most memorable pieces of the past year when he wrote about giving up beer (but not writing about it!) in Good Beer Hunting.
These are just some of the examples of writers who are taking their interests and life experiences into their work and producing articles and stories that are incredibly interesting, insightful, revealing, and informative. If they hadn’t pursued their passions in writing, despite the little material benefit, we would know less about—and care less about—this wonderful world of beer. Kudos to everybody who toils to help us understand beer. You’re awesome.
(I will add, parenthetically and self-promotionally, that I hit for the cycle this year, winning a gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention. This blog, in its typical manner, finished in second place. For those of you scoring at home that’s four silvers in six years, with a gold and a goose-egg year rounding things out. New motto: everyone’s second-favorite blog! The podcast, once again, received no love. I am certain our entry got lost in the mail. No other explanation seems plausible.)