67 Awards: The Judges Seem to Like Us
Three categories have one finalist with work about Lebanon and/or Palestine
Yesterday, the 67 Global Wine Communicator Awards (of 67 Pall Mall) listed their finalists for awards across six categories.
DISCLAIMER: I submitted my wine essay about the Israeli war on our South for Vittles for the long-form writing category but it didn’t make it beyond the long-list.
I do not care that I was not a finalist. I’m tired of participating in the chase for Western approval/accolades but I hesitantly threw my hat in the ring because 1) I wanted more people to read the Vittles piece and 2) the prize money is a decent £2,000.
In all honesty, I wasn’t looking for my name at first. Based on last year’s finalists and gala attendees, I suspected who would be in the running but I wanted to see which pieces got them through to the last lap. I clicked on the full list to see the details.
Three categories have one finalist with work about Lebanon and/or Palestine.
Henna Bakshi (United States) for the Gusbourne Award for Best Global Wine Communicator in Long-Form Writing: Making Fine Wine in Palestine, Despite It All
Vincent and Lisa Anter (United States) for the Jera Award for Best Global Wine Communicator in Long-Form Video: Is Lebanon the Most UNDERRATED Food & Wine Destination in the Mediterranean?
Susie and Peter Richards (United Kingdom) for the 67 Pall Mall Award for Best Global Wine Communicator in Audio: Wine and War – Palestine, Israel and Lebanon
I’ve mentioned both the work of Bakshi and Anter before and I’ve logged the timely coverage we received during Israel’s escalation in Lebanon last year. The two lists below are why I launched the quarterly bulletins this year so that I could keep track of the top headlines about Lebanese wine. When you see it all in one place, you can see how, when, and why coverage changes or spikes.
I should be happy now because three works about us in the finals means a lot of eyes/ears learning about Lebanon and Palestine, right? A win for them is also a win for us, yes?
Well, it depends on the work, the creator, and their consistency. It depends on their relationship with the country, its people, and if that’s deepened with time. It depends on whether they’ve done their homework and if they’re aware of where their understanding might fall short. How does the work present what has happened over the last two years? Have the authors shown up when the people they write or talk about are in danger? Do they use their platforms - the same platforms that increased in size thanks to their coverage of us - to talk about us in a way that’s separate from their bylines? Do they help us when were being crushed or genocided by Israel?
I am not a believer of any publicity is good publicity. I don’t even think our publicity has to always be positive; it just needs to be handled with care. What do you think?
You're so right - winning awards for things seems to be so much more than just the content of the work!
Addressing your readers in the way that you do means you're building a community, which is different from trying to catch more people in a wider net. This is something we're learning as we try to show people in the UK another side of Lebanon. And yes, using a platform to offer solidarity is really important.
With few exceptions that list of finaliats is the same white western boomes that have total dominance in wine media.