A Boulder native who works as a managing editor for an online news magazine was among the honorees at the National Magazine Awards lunch in New York March 13.
Darby Smith, daughter of Terry Minow and Brud Smith, grew up in the Boulder Valley, worked on the Panther Press while at Jefferson High, did an internship at the Boulder Monitor and graduated with a journalism degree from Gonzaga.
She has spent the past several years working for the digital magazine Grist. That publication was one of 57 media organizations nominated this year for the “Ellie” awards by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
The awards lunch was hosted by Don Lemon, anchor of ‘CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.” Among magazines honored at the presentation: The Atlantic, National Geographic, The New Yorker, ProPublica, GQ Style, TIME, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Consumer Reports.
Grist, which received its first nomination this year, was honored in the Personal Service category.
Much of Smith’s writing for Grist has examined food issues, focusing on the food supply, agricultural issues and innovation in food policies. She has also interviewed some well-known personalities such as Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson and tackled issues such as sustainability and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Some of her most entertaining work, at least from the perspective of Boulder, MT, has come from interviews with a far less-known person: Boulder Valley rancher Brud Smith, her father.
A collection of her work can be found online at grist.org.
