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Westword editor Patricia Calhoun has won first place for General Column Writing in the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Awards (daily circulation 1-100,000/non-daily publication) with a collection of columns that included two pices on the Sand Creek Massacre (including Governor John Hickenlooper’s apology to descendants) to a pioneering pot researcher to the invention of the illuminated outdoor Christmas tree in Denver a century ago. The awards, which recognized work published or broadcast in 2014, were announced at the end of April; Sigma Delta Chi award winners will be honored at a banquet on June 26 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Alan Prendergast won the 2013 Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature writing (non-daily publication) for “The Lifers Book Club”; Calhoun won that same award in 2010 for “Spreading Her Wings,” her story about Kristen Stillman, who, along with her twin brother, was held hostage in a home in northwest Denver for more than a decade. The Calhoun columns in her winning entry:
December 9, 2014: “Sweet Sorrow”
November 26, 2014: “The Light Stuff”
November 19, 2014: “A Dark Legacy“
September 4, 2014: “Hot Potato”
June 12, 2014: “Rocky Flats Secrets”
Find out more about the Society of Professional Journalists here.