Although "Cincinnati Horizons" magazine has won nearly 200 awards in the last two decades, none were as impressive in both volume and prestige as our latest haul from the International Association of Business Communicators. In early 2004, the magazine staff recently took seven awards in the regional Silver Quill contest for District 7.

Polish on the trophy came from the awards director Barbara Rook: "Wow! I almost don't know how to share with you the news about your awards, for fear you might think it was rigged or that everyone wins," she said in her awards announcement. "Trust me, neither is the case.

"I've judged for many years and have run the District 7 awards two years in a row, and while I've seen multiple winners before, I've never seen so many winning entries from one entry source. You must all do great work."

So it is with pride that I itemize the following awards:

• Magazine writing -- Award of Excellence to the editorial staff for three consecutive issues of the magazine
• Writing for a recurring feature -- Award of Excellence to the editorial staff for the "Panorama" news column (This was the only award given in that category.)
• Feature writing -- Award of Excellence to Mary Niehaus for the story on UC's fine arts collection
• Personality profile -- Award of Excellence to Deb Rieselman for her story on president Joseph Steger's retirement
• E-magazine -- Award of Merit to entire staff for online magazine (This was the only award given in that category.)
• Magazine design -- Award of Merit to Dawn High (This was the only award given in that category.)
• Feature writing -- Award of Merit to John Bach for the story on UC artists

-- D. Rieselman