Arizona Press Club names Nerdvana ‘Best Features Blog’

May 22, 2011

I wanted to share the exciting news that our little blog has been honored by the Arizona Press Club with a first-place award in the “Best Features Blog” category!

This is my first first-place honor ever in journalism (I came close last year with second place in the same category) and it’s especially thrilling because the local competition in this arena is always so formidable. Case in point: Second place went to Karen Davis Barr of Raising Arizona Kids magazine’s Behind the ‘Zine blog for entries chronicling her trip to Ethiopia, and third went to the Chow Bella bloggers at the Phoenix New Times. Congrats to all!

Here’s what the judge had to say about my entry, which was one of nine in the category:

“Peters’ blog is a must-read for anyone interested in science fiction, fantasy, comic books and the like. His reporting is exhaustive, his writing clear. He strikes a strong balance by not being boosterish but also not being hyper-critical. His blog posts are filled with links to underlying documents, photos, useful user-friendly information and timely, level-headed writing that indulges readers’ appetite for in-depth treatment of the topic.”

Nerdvana honored by Arizona Press Club

May 15, 2010

Nerdvana has just won second place in the “Best Feature Blogs” category of the Arizona Press Club’s 2009 Best Journalism in Arizona.

I wasn’t in attendance for the awards banquet, held Saturday at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix, but former Nerdvana co-conspirator Chris “KeL” Adams was there to represent the team.

Our entries were judged by Heather Irwin, who writes the food blog BiteClub for the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat and is the recipient of the 2009 EPpy for best entertainment blog. Here are her comments:

I love the great original reporting and geeky insights about the sci-fi world — but all the entries were approachable and interesting to someone who may not know all the ins and outs of the comic/game/sci-fi world. That’s a wonderful quality. Terrific diversity in the entries — from Star Trek to Star Wars.

Congrats to KeL on his first award in the industry, and to the gang at the Phoenix New Times’ Up on the Sun music blog for their first- and third-place wins in the same category. I also want to congratulate all my colleagues for their well-earned kudos!

Wired blog recommends following us on Twitter — again!

Jan. 14, 2010

We would like to thank the fatherly folks over at Wired magazine’s GeekDad blog for including us in their latest list: 150 Geeky Media People You Should Be Following on Twitter.

It’s an honor to see @nerdvana listed as an “excellent geek blogger” right between @roddenberry (Rod, Star Trek creator Gene’s son) and @donttrythis (MythBusters’ Adam Savage).

Last summer they were gracious enough to include Nerdvana in their list of ‘100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter.’ And I’m still reeling.

Just last night I discovered that Nerdvana co-conspirator Chris Adams and I have the distinction of being listed in Technorati’s “Top 100 Comics” blog list. Wow.

So thanks for reading, geekosphere! There might be something to this whole blogging thing after all …

@nerdvana in ’100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter’

May 13, 2009

So being a geek and a dad, I regularly read GeekDad, a blog at Wired.com dedicated to “raising geek generation 2.0.” The editors and many contributors maintain a tone and style that have influenced me as I ventured into the world of blogging about things like video games and science fiction. (And there’s plenty for you GeekMoms and Geeklets, too.)

They were such an inspiration, in fact, that last month when they sought volunteer writers to round out their ranks I considered throwing my hat into the ring. But they got such an overwhelming response that the call for applications was closed before I had a chance to submit mine!

Today they have an article by head GeekDad Ken Denmead entitled “100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter.” Intrigued, I clicked through to read more, and discovered that I was already following many of them, with surprising exceptions like Bill Amend of Foxtrot fame and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. These oversights were immediately corrected.

But I was delightfully surprised to see my own name (Jayson Peters, “Geek blogger”) and this blog, Nerdvana, sandwiched between Geek Girl Diva (“Geeky blogger and affiliates manager for Entertainment Earth”) and Alison Lunde (“Code monkey and sarcastageek”).

Thanks, GeekDads! So there you have it — all the cool people follow Nerdvana on Twitter. And so should you!

• “100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter” (Wired’s GeekDad blog)