Mark E. Leib, longtime theater critic for Creative Loafing Tampa, has won the top award for Criticism in the 2010 Sunshine State Awards, a statewide competition recognizing Florida’s best journalism of 2009. The winners were announced Saturday night at a ceremony at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, FL. CL also took home awards for its blog, Daily Loaf; for a special issue, "The Decade in Review"; for Peter Meinke's "Poet's Notebook" column; and for reviews by food critic Brian Ries.
The South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists administrates the awards, which cover print, broadcast and web publications throughout Florida. News professionals from around the country judge the contest, which this year received 700 entries. The judges said this about Leib's winning reviews:
"There's no whitewashing in Leib's style. He eloquently tells readers the good, the bad and the ugly about a production and its cast. And he does it matter-of-factly without a Simonized you-suck attitude."
Other CL awards, plus info on the evening's big winners, after the break.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.