Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, won three first-place awards at the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia conference last month in Washington, D.C.

The AAN Awards recognize the most artful, compelling and courageous journalism produced each year by the alternative newsmedia. AAN member publications vary in size and circulation, and are based in cities across the U.S. and Canada; the annual awards contest gives these publications the opportunity to compete against their peers. This year’s competition consisted of 817 entries submitted by 67 publications; the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland conducted the judging. Seven Days’ awards included:

Multimedia, 1st Place

For Eva Sollberger’s  Stuck in Vermont episode, “The River of Light Harvest Moon Winooski Paddle.” A second video of hers, “Stuck Inside a Vermonter’s Colon,” received an honorable mention.

Free Speech, 1st Place

For stories by Terri Hallenbeck and Paul Heintz about Seven Days’ decision to fight subpoenas issued to Heintz, reporter Mark Davis and news editor Matthew Roy. All three were involved in covering the sexual assault investigation of state Sen. Norm McAllister.

Beat Reporting, 1st Place, "Circulation Under 45,000"

For a selection of “cops and courts” stories by Mark Davis about a zealous prosecutor in Bennington County; a justice-seeking Burlington mother whose two sons overdosed together; and a police-officer-involved shooting in Winooski.

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Seven Days also received second-place honors in the Special Section category for the newly redesigned What’s Good: A Seven Days Field Guide to  Burlington. Seven Days writers and designers were recognized with third- place  honors for Film Criticism (Margot Harrison), Cover Design (Diane Sullivan and Brooke Bousquet), Illustration and Format Buster/Innovation — the latter for a collaborative Bernie Sanders-themed “Feel the Bern” adult coloring contest. Honorable mention recipients included Hannah Palmer Egan in the Food Writing category, and Kymelya Sari in the Race Reporting category, for her cover story “Finding Her Voice: Hate crime victim Fatuma Bulle advocates for refugee women and families.”